As if there weren’t enough points piling up in the negative column for social media, the Federal Trade Commission has recently released a report revealing that scams run through social media platforms are netting big money for fraudsters. According to the FTC, social media con jobs cost Americans three-quarters of a billion dollars in 2021 ($770M) and accounted for over a quarter of the total fraud claims made that year. This is a 17-fold increase since 2017, and double what was reported in 2020. The top 2 money-makers? Investment scams and online romance swindles.
What this means for you.
For a very large percentage of our population, social media has become a staple of their daily lives, even more so during the pandemic and the various stages of lockdown that have washed over the country. It is well documented how platforms like Facebook are designed to create and reinforce echo chambers and information bias, which in effect creates an audience that is predisposed to unreasonably trust any content that appears in their “bubble”. While it may seem blasphemous to think of them as clever or learned, you can bet that scammers are reading these same papers to use this knowledge to their advantage
As a savvy business professional, you probably already know well enough to distrust investment knowledge received from someone in your Facebook feed who isn’t a known and licensed financial advisor (Right? RIGHT?!?), but in the day and age of social distancing and Zoom Cocktail Parties finding romance online doesn’t seem so farfetched, especially since online dating has been around for decades now. Both are huge moneymakers for scammers, and platforms like Facebook and Instagram are ripe hunting grounds with a never-ending supply of targets.
Unfortunately, given how easy it is to create a fake social media account, or to hijack a legitimate one, the truly savvy online traveler will have to wander the social media lands with eyes wide open, wallet in a zipped-up pocket, and a guarded heart. These are not apocryphal stories or urban legends. I have personally counseled at least half a dozen very intelligent and savvy adults through social media scams purely because the platforms are designed to lull people into a false sense of security, primarily so that they never consider leaving. As with anything consumed without moderation, this can lead to harm: financial, emotional and sometimes even physical.
The FTC has assembled guidelines for protecting yourself in social media (at the bottom of the short article). Perhaps some of these look familiar:
- Limit who can see your posts and information on social media. All platforms collect information about you from your activities on social media, but visit your privacy settings to set some restrictions.
- Check if you can opt out of targeted advertising. Some platforms let you do that.
- If you get a message from a friend about an opportunity or an urgent need for money, call them. Their account may have been hacked – especially if they ask you to pay by cryptocurrency, gift card, or wire transfer. That’s how scammers ask you to pay.
- If someone appears on your social media and rushes you to start a friendship or romance, slow down. Read about romance scams. And never send money to someone you haven’t met in person.
- Before you buy, check out the company. Search online for its name plus “scam” or “complaint.”
Image courtesy of Stuart Miles at FreeDigitalPhotos.net
Even the most diehard Facebook afficianado will admit that some days their news feed seems to be a neverending stream of banal posts from friends, making it hard to catch the posts that really matter. “Banal” not because their friends are boring, but many social media apps start out by default posting everything a user does with that app. Multiply that by 5 or 6 apps times all the friends you follow on Facebook, and you have a news stream that is full of noise and very little signal. Facebook, realizing that it already has a fight on its hands to retain its billions of customers, has heard the complaints and is adjusting its news feed platform to de-prioritize auto-posts from third-party apps, which should give posts actually written by the user better visibility. They also start requiring third-party apps that auto-post on a users behalf to ask users if they actually want the app to auto-post, instead of just assuming that they do.
What this means for you:
The explosive growth of Facebook was largely attributed to its astonishing abillity to allow friends to socialize in a way that was previously only possible by being in direct contact with them, or (heaven forbid!) seeing them face to face. However, as social media grew into maturity and other platforms emerged, splintered and gathered their own loyal fans, the amount of social activity has increased exponentially, to point where its become nearly impossible to sort out the information that matters. And what matters in the social context is so highly personalized, there is no simple, algorithmic way to do so. Thus, we see the pendulum begin its return swing, starting with Facebook (the progenitor of “What I had for lunch” posts) turning down the activity spam so that their users can once again sort the wheat from the chaff. It may even get me reading my Facebook news stream again!
I can count on one hand the number of people that have said to me, “There’s not enough stuff on Facebook!” without using any fingers (and she was new to Facebook). More often, I hear, “I can’t keep up,” or “I have to sort through a lot of fluff to find anything good.” According to an opinion piece published in Business Insider, Facebook appears to be collapsing under the weight of its market dominance that is only exacerbated by the ease of posting anything to their stream from just about any device. So take this fire hose of updates from everyone you know and add video advertisements that will automatically play as they appear (sound muted…for now).
Yep, Facebook is adding commercials to your already overflowing news stream.
What this means for you:
If you weren’t already avoiding Facebook, in-line video advertisements might just push you over the edge. Advertisers seem to be salivating at the prospect, with some analysts predicting 1-day 30-second spots costing millions of dollars, but with the potential of reaching billions of viewers. Seeing as Facebook can segment their users into just about any size demographic target, they may start carving up the ad space into more affordable chunks, giving us the social media equivalent of late-night cable community channel or local TV station commercials. I’m only guessing, but this might raise the banality factor a bit too high for most folks, and Facebook could continue to see an exodus of its highly-prized 18-24 demographic as they move on to more focused and less spammy social media platforms like SnapChat, Instagram and WhatsApp.
Responding to a maelstrom of criticism, Instagram announced today that they plan to withdraw the proposed Terms of Use changes that sparked outrage across the internet yesterday. According to co-founder Kevin Systrom, Instagram never had any intent to monetize user photos without fairly compensating the photographer, and they are working to revise the TOU wording in a manner that is less confusing and less likely to start a another protest/boycott. Ironically, other sources have pointed out that the outrage was ill-informed at the start, and as things are wont to do on the Internet, spun out of control, perhaps unfairly so for Instagram.
It would seem that Instagram has always had the right (according to their current TOU) to monetize your content, and that the withdrawn change actually narrowed the rather broad terms users agreed to previously. I’d publish a full mea culpa on this, but the point of my previous article was more to point out the icky terms governing the use of photos that contain minors, as well as the very vague terms that assume minors are using Instagram with implicit parental consent. I understand it’s hard to police the use of free apps, especially when parents are noticeably absent with respect to knowing what their kids are doing on their personal media devices, but that seems like a cop out.
What this means for you:
My stance on the exploitation of minors for profit still stands: It’s icky. If you are a company like Instagram that is bound to feature content containing images of minors, you need to be much more careful how you glad-handle parents. As for jumping on the rage bandwagon yesterday:
Dear Instagram,
I’m sorry for assuming you suddenly became evil. You aren’t evil, but maybe you were too cavalier with your current Terms of Use, and you let too much of your Facebook allegiance shine through in your proposed changes. Please don’t be icky, and please don’t treat your users like a prize crop, even though they may act exactly as that. I’m sorry I didn’t take the time to read your lengthy and lawyered-up TOU to find out the truth that you had us by the throat from the get go, and I’m even more sorry that we willingly (through our own ignorance/apathy) let you.
The eagle-eyed internet has caught another dotcom company looking to cash in on its popularity (and recent integration with Facebook): starting on Jan 16, 2013, Instagram will be using a new Terms of Service agreement that allows it to use any content posted publicly to its service for marketing purposes.
“To help us deliver interesting paid or sponsored content or promotions, you agree that a business or other entity may pay us to display your username, likeness, photos (along with any associated metadata) and/or actions you take, in connection with paid or sponsored content or promotions, without any compensation to you.”
Also important: this not only applies to users who have an account with Instagram, but also anyone’s likeness that appears in a user’s publicly posted photos can also be used as such. Wait, we’re not done: if you are a minor and you’ve accepted the new TOU, you acknowledge that your parent/guardian is aware of the TOU and tacitly accepts the above.
What this means for you:
If you aren’t in the business of making money off your likeness, or your subjects aren’t celebrities, or if you don’t care that Instagram/Facebook might make some money off your own likeness, then carry on. However, if you happen to care how your children’s likeness may be exploited, you may want to ask any snap-happy smartphone users to not post pictures of your children onto Instagram, or at minimum, make them aware of these TOU changes. You may be surprised at how many people aren’t aware of Instagram’s control over the content they think they own, and doubly surprised at the number of people who don’t care that they may be providing profit for company’s that provide free services.
We’ve already seen way too much of some politicians and celebrities on the internet, but it seems human foolishness knows no bounds where the internet is concerned: sharp eyes have spotted a trend of people posting things like driver’s licenses, debit cards and other items with sensitive personal information in plain view on the internet through services like Twitter and Instagram. The reasons for posting these images aren’t immediately clear – and frankly, there isn’t a single logical explanation that doesn’t make these folks out as complete fools.
What this means for you:
In case you aren’t clear as to why this is a bad, bad thing – posting your sensitive personal information on the internet is tantamount to building a gigantic neon sign over your head that says, “Steal my identity, please!” To all the people who are doing this – STOP. Put down your smartphone (ironic, eh?) and step away from the internet. Go stand in the corner and put on that funny, pointed cap. Congratulations, you’ve just earned the Dunce of the Year!
Parents – if you have a teenager with their own smartphone and they’ve just earned their driver’s license or their own credit card, make sure they aren’t taking a picture of that shiny new card and posting it on the internet to brag to their peers. It might be a good time for a little security chat – and will be a lot more comfortable than that other chat you’ve been putting off for awhile now, right?