Ever Been A Victim of A Social Scam?

I’m sure you’ve seen many social scams floating around the various social networks.

You know the ones…the posts that ask you to click on a link, article, or a video with a really catchy, risqué, or intriguing bit of text, shared by a friend or colleague.

There is also…

• The friend request from someone you thought you were already friends with.
• A Twitter account impersonating you.
• The tags in posts of you or your business page that have absolutely nothing to do with you or your business.
• The private messages from strangers telling you how beautiful your face is, and how they just happened across your profile.
• The “lucky winner” message informing you you’ve won the Facebook lottery and, if you just send in a few hundred dollars to cover transfer and handling fees, you’ll be rich…

It’s a never-ending cycle it seems. Wherever there is a chance to manipulate and take advantage, there will be someone not only willing, but very determined to do so.

These scams are nothing new. They began with door-to-door con artists and letters via snail mail and have evolved over time as our means of communication have changed. From fake charity solicitation calls to pleas of help from Nigerian Princes, fraud has always been around.

In fact, cons like this have been traced back as far as the 1500’s with what was called the “Spanish Prisoner” scam!

While you may think it doesn’t really matter, falling victim to one of these scams can have a negative impact on your business.

Take your Facebook account for example. One of the most widespread Facebook scams is to gain access to your account and post something as you to get your friends to click or share it; or, to even post as you on the timelines of all your friends and get their friends to take an action.

If this happens it can have a massive impact on your credibility. It is really important that you stay up-to-date on things like this and understand how to spot scams and cons on social in order to protect your reputation online.

One of my favourite tools to combat spam and scams on Facebook is blocking. I don’t use it often, but it definitely comes in handy.

Sometimes things go wrong in a friendship, sometimes you get the odd creepy person pretending to be someone they’re not — it doesn’t really matter what the reason is — you have control.

All you have to do is go to facebook.com/blocking. The last option you have on that page is to manage blocking and when you manage blocking. There are four things that you can block: people, applications, game invites, and event invitations.

Never again do you have to receive an invitation for Mafia Wars, you can block it!

Have you ever used Facebook’s blocking feature? Leave me a comment and let me know what your experience has been.