Here’s why clicking those “links” makes things worse

Have you ever wondered why a person you barely communicate with on facebook sent you a message with an attached link? Well, don’t open it. It may seem tempting, but for God’s sake, better ignore the message instead.

These messages come often at random, unpredictable times. Accounts that have sent unreliable links are victims of social media phishing, a social engineering using digital methods for malicious activities. An article by Elliot Volkman entitled “Why Social Media is Increasingly Abused for Phishing Attacks” enumerates the forms of phishing that may occur on social media: impersonation, credential theft, propagating attacks, data dumps, and romance scams are among the few that were listed.

Recently, the PSHS-CRC community was alarmed of the links spreading across group chats and private messages. From one influence to another, a network of accounts have been victims of this phishing scheme.

A lot could happen once you fill out personal information on the pages redirected from the link you accessed. Once you turn in your email and password, it is now easier for the threat actor to use your information and platform to widen his victim reach. The more accounts jeopardized, the greater the network is. These threat actors are also capable of impersonating influential accounts, possibly luring followers and subscribers towards their scheme.

Your data plays a vital role in the social media phishing schemes — therefore it is your responsibility to protect it. Nowadays, security measures such as two-factor authentication and trusted devices can easily be activated. Nonetheless, the most important precaution is to never give away personal information easily. Assess the type of media you receive and do not just open it immediately — take it from me, you don’t want to have your account suspended and forcibly make a new one, right? So, whatever link you receive, please do think before you click.