The activity of scammers on the internet is aimed at earning money through dishonest means, in most cases, this is:
- theft of personal data;
- access to bank cards;
- access to accounts and passwords in social networks.
Scammers hack accounts to borrow or solicit money from the victim's acquaintances, friends, or to blackmail by publishing personal photos and correspondence.
Account Recovery Fraud
Everyone who has fallen victim to account hacking tries to save and recover it in order to:
- not lose contact with acquaintances, friends;
- access personal accounts;
- register on various websites.
Fraudsters offer to recover the account for a certain fee, threatening that all information will be lost or disclosed. In this case, you should not trust the scammers, as there is no guarantee of account recovery even if you pay them. To avoid becoming a victim of fraudulent account hacking manipulations, it is better to contact specialists.
Hacker Deception
To prevent a hacker from accessing a user's personal data on the internet, it is enough to use messages with attached links. By clicking on such a link, the user becomes a victim of scammers, as malicious software connects to their device, capable of transmitting information about all actions on the computer to the hacker.
Fake Support Services
Scammers have developed a deception scheme using Telegram, posing as support service employees of the messenger. They offer to transfer existing information to a secure resource. The user is sent a link to a site where they need to enter the data used to log into the Telegram account. And the scammers gain full access to the user's profile, they can read their correspondence, download video and photo files.
Password Recovery Scams
When registering on a site, the user is provided with the opportunity to create double protection and enable the password recovery function. To do this, it is necessary to send a request to the site with a password recovery notification. To enable this feature, either an email or phone number is required. A message with an additional confirmation code is sent for password recovery, to enter the account and change the password, scammers skillfully use this.
To steal an account, they pretend to be employees of organizations where the victim is registered and talk about an attempted account hack. Therefore, they need an additional code to change the password, supposedly to secure the account from scammers, but in reality, the scammers change the password and take over the account, acquiring all the information stored there.
Fake Tech Support
Scammers engage in activities with fake tech support, they hunt for accounts and personal user data to carry out scams. By luring victims, they send very convincing messages where urgent actions are required to prevent account blocking by following the attached link. Fake tech support representatives use pressure tactics in messages to the victim that:
- the user's account was disabled due to copyright violations;
- to confirm the profile and prevent account blocking, it is necessary to follow the link and enter personal data.
Data Recovery Scam
Receiving a fake message about data recovery, where it is proposed to enter login credentials to access a profile, motivating it by saying that the account is being re-verified and its blocking is being prevented. By completing these actions, the victim goes to the next stage, where they need to enter their personal data to guarantee avoiding blocking and recovering the account. Scammers demand access to cookie files. They provide detailed instructions on how to do this, and by transferring such cookie files, the user becomes a victim of a man-in-the-middle attack with session hijacking.
How to Protect Your Account from Scammers
When creating an account in Google and not only, it is necessary to set up an identity verification function, where creating an electronic key is offered. This is a program that confirms identity. If scammers have obtained the username and password, without information about this key, hacking the account is difficult.
It is necessary to use complex and reliable passwords, it is recommended to use various sets of characters, signs, and numbers. Avoid associative information:
- date of birth;
- pet names;
- names of loved ones and children;
- maiden name;
- place of residence.
Password Recovery Scams
Recently, scammers have been actively developing password recovery scams, relying on the trust and ignorance of social media and internet resource users. Pretending to be specialists capable of helping with password recovery, they gain the user's trust. Through deceptive maneuvers, they extract information to take over the account by changing the password. In this way, scammers gain access, and the real user loses it, and in the hope that their data is not compromised, they may create a new account.