Internet Scams Teens are Falling For
By Harjas Singh Chopra
Have you ever received a strange text message from a close friend requesting you to complete an odd online activity for them? Many of us would make the extra effort to assist them without asking any questions, but unfortunately, that is exactly what the scammers want.
One Westview student says that they were asked to copy and paste a link. It seemed to be an easy task, so they helped their friend with it. “I did it, but I didn’t know that in doing so I would accidentally click that link and get locked out of my account. Later, I got text messages from my friends about why I was posting inappropriate pictures on Instagram, and then I knew that I had truly been hacked.”
In this scam, the first thing the fraudster does after taking total control of the victim’s account is to alter all of the victim’s passwords and prevent them from accessing their own account. Then the scammer messages each and every one of the victim’s followers, asking them to complete a strange assignment like filling out an application or copying and pasting a link to a website, claiming that the victim will benefit from this or something similar. As a result, they eventually gain access to the victim’s friends’ accounts, which starts a chain of events.
But what does the scammer get from all this? By getting access to the victim’s social media account, the scammers are able to get the victim’s passwords, date of birth, as well as access to other websites that may use the same passwords. From all this information, they are able to create a fake identity, pose as the victim, and withdraw money.
One victim said, “My friend needed to borrow 20 bucks, and since I knew them for a while, I clicked their Venmo link and gave them the money. However, the link was a hoax, and instead my account was hacked.” Fortunately, the victim quickly changed their passwords, so no money was stolen from their account.
If you click such a link and find yourself hacked — whether on Instagram, Discord, or Venmo — you should always look for solutions to get back in instead of giving up, like changing your passwords through a different method of verification. Additionally, enabling two-step verification is one method to avoid hacks: on many apps or websites, you can enable two-step verification so that a separate code is also required to log in, which adds extra security. Enabling two-step verification on your most important apps and websites can help prevent scams from doing any damage.
Scams on the Internet are more common than ever, and teenagers with access to technology are particularly vulnerable to Internet scams. Knowing the different kinds of scams that can occur online is helpful, but so is knowing how to avoid them. In the next installment of this series, we will be talking about more such scams and some strategies to keep yourself and your loved ones safe from such scams.