Scam 1: Did you see this picture?

Social sites such as Facebook and Twitter have been plagued by several scams. This scam involves a question that wakes the user’s interest and once the user clicks on it, he or she is then directed to a fake login screen. In this scam, usually the user receives a message, such as “Did you see this picture?” with a link also included. The user clicks the scam link, and this scam links prompts them to enter log-in credentials on a fake log in screen.

How This Scam Works
Members might receive a message in their inbox, or on their wall, that directs them to another site which looks identical to for example the Facebook or Twitter log-in page. The scam link directed the user to a screen that looked just like the Twitter log-in page, but was instead a scam phishing site. Once you’ve entered your user name and password into one of these scam sites, the scammers have access to your account.

Another version of this scam incorporated messages requesting users update account information, which then took them to scam log-in screens.

This is a classic phishing scam, but unfortunately many people have fallen for it. Spammers may be looking for account information in order to send spam, or pose as you in order to pull off another scam. If you are suspicions that a message or post might be a scam, type in the login URL (Facebook.com or Twitter.com in this case) in a web browser by yourself. This way you can be sure you are entering the right URL and not a scam one. If you do click on the scam link, check the URL before entering your log-in information. If your browser bar says anything other than Facebook.com or Twitter.com, leave the site immediately since this is a scam.