Social Media: a Gold Mine for Scammers in 2021

Social media permeates the lives of many people – we use it to keep in touch, make new friends, shop, and have fun. But reports to the FTC (Federal Trade Comission) show that social media is also increasingly where scammers go to trick us. More than one in four people who reported losing money to fraud in 2021 said it started on social media with an ad, a post, or a message. More than 95,000 people reported about $770 million in losses to fraud initiated on social media platforms in 2021.

For scammers, there’s a lot to like about social media. It’s a low-cost way to reach billions of people from anywhere in the world. It’s easy to manufacture a fake persona, or scammers can hack into an existing profile to get “friends” to trick. There’s the ability to study the personal details people share on social media and target people with false ads based on details such as their age, interests, or past purchases.

Reports make clear that social media is a tool for scammers in investment scams, particularly cryptocurrency investments. After investment scams, FTC data point to romance scams as the second most profitable fraud on social media. Losses to romance scams have climbed to record highs in recent years. While investment and romance scams top the list on dollars lost, the largest number of reports came from people who said they were scammed trying to buy something they saw marketed on social media. Some reports even described ads that impersonated real online retailers that drove people to lookalike websites.

There are many other frauds on social media and new ones are popping up all the time. To minimize your risk, decline friend requests from people you don’t know, limit who can see your posts and personal information, be thoughtful about what you share online, and take care with suspect links.

Adapted from https://www.ftc.gov/news-events/blogs/data-spotlight/2022/01/social-media-gold-mine-scammers-2021.

Social Media: a Gold Mine for Scammers in 2021

Social media permeates the lives of many people – we use it to (1) in touch, (2) new friends, shop, and (3) fun. But reports to the FTC (Federal Trade Comission) show that social media is also increasingly where scammers go to trick us. More than one in four people who reported losing money to fraud in 2021 said it started on social media with an ad, a post, or a message. More than 95,000 people reported about $770 million in losses to fraud initiated on social media platforms in 2021.

For scammers, there’s a lot to like about social media. It’s a low-cost way to reach billions of people from anywhere in the world. It’s easy to manufacture a fake persona, or scammers can hack into an existing profile to get “friends” to trick. There’s the ability to study the personal details people share on social media and target people with false ads based on details such as their age, interests, or past purchases.

Reports make clear that social media is a tool for scammers in investment scams, particularly cryptocurrency investments. After investment scams, FTC data point to romance scams as the second most profitable fraud on social media. Losses to romance scams have climbed to record highs in recent years. While investment and romance scams top the list on dollars lost, the largest number of reports came from people who said they were scammed trying to buy something they saw marketed on social media. Some reports even described ads that impersonated real online retailers that drove people to lookalike websites.

There are many other frauds on social media and new ones are popping up all the time. To minimize your risk, decline friend requests from people you don’t know, limit who can see your posts and personal information, be thoughtful about what you share online, and take care with suspect links.

Adapted from https://www.ftc.gov/news-events/blogs/data-spotlight/2022/01/social-media-gold-mine-scammers-2021.

Social Media: a Gold Mine for Scammers in 2021

Social media permeates the lives of many people – we use it to keep in touch, make new friends, shop, and have fun. But reports to the FTC (Federal Trade Comission) show that social media is also increasingly where scammers go to trick us. More than one in four people who reported losing money to fraud in 2021 said it started on social media with an ad, a post, or a message. More than 95,000 people reported about $770 million in losses to fraud initiated on social media platforms in 2021.

For scammers, there’s a lot to like about social media. It’s a low-cost way to reach billions of people from anywhere in the world. It’s easy to manufacture a fake persona, or scammers can hack into an existing profile to get “friends” to trick. There’s the ability to study the personal details people share on social media and target people with false ads based on details such as their age, interests, or past purchases.

Reports make clear that social media is a tool for scammers in investment scams, particularly cryptocurrency investments. After investment scams, FTC data point to romance scams as the second most profitable fraud on social media. Losses to romance scams have climbed to record highs in recent years. While investment and romance scams top the list on dollars lost, the largest number of reports came from people who said they were scammed trying to buy something they saw marketed on social media. Some reports even described ads that impersonated real online retailers that drove people to lookalike websites.

There are many other frauds on social media and new ones are popping up all the time. To minimize your risk, decline friend requests from people you don’t know, limit who can see your posts and personal information, be thoughtful about what you share online, and take care with suspect links.

Adapted from https://www.ftc.gov/news-events/blogs/data-spotlight/2022/01/social-media-gold-mine-scammers-2021.

Romance and Reality

Military service is demanding and dangerous. As I write this, American soldiers serve in remote and hostile environments. For young leaders in today's Army, the war on terror constitutes a difficult and sometimes tragic reality.

Meanwhile, in the small classrooms of West Point, young cadets consider war through the eyes of Rudyard Kipling, Carl Sandburg, and John McCrae. During his or her plebe year, every West Point cadet takes a semester of English literature, reading and discussing poetry from Ovid to Owen, Spenser to Springsteen. Cadets must also recite poems from memory, a challenge that many graduates recall years later as one of their toughest hurdles.

Why, in an age of increasingly technical and complex warfare, would America's future combat leaders spend sixteen weeks studying the likes of irony, rhyme, and meter?

Poetry confronts cadets with new ideas that challenge their worldview. The West Point curriculum includes poetry, history, philosophy, politics, and law, because these subjects provide a universe of new ideas, different perspectives, competing values and conflicting emotions. In combat, our graduates face similar challenges: whether to fire at a sniper hiding in a mosque, or how to negotiate agreements between competing tribal leaders. Schoolbook solutions to these problems do not exist; combat leaders must rely on their own morality, their own creativity, their own convictions. In teaching cadets poetry, we teach them not what to think, but how to think.

Adapted from https://www.poetryfoundation.org/search?query=romance+and+reality.

Romance and Reality

Military service is demanding and dangerous. As I write this, American soldiers serve in remote and hostile environments. For young leaders in today's Army, the war on terror constitutes a difficult and sometimes tragic reality.

Meanwhile, in the small classrooms of West Point, young cadets consider war through the eyes of Rudyard Kipling, Carl Sandburg, and John McCrae. During his or her plebe year, every West Point cadet takes a semester of English literature, reading and discussing poetry from Ovid to Owen, Spenser to Springsteen. Cadets must also recite poems from memory, a challenge that many graduates recall years later as one of their toughest hurdles.

Why, in an age of increasingly technical and complex warfare, would America's future combat leaders spend sixteen weeks studying the likes of irony, rhyme, and meter?

Poetry confronts cadets with new ideas that challenge their worldview. The West Point curriculum includes poetry, history, philosophy, politics, and law, because these subjects provide a universe of new ideas, different perspectives, competing values and conflicting emotions. In combat, our graduates face similar challenges: whether to fire at a sniper hiding in a mosque, or how to negotiate agreements between competing tribal leaders. Schoolbook solutions to these problems do not exist; combat leaders must rely on their own morality, their own creativity, their own convictions. In teaching cadets poetry, we teach them not what to think, but how to think.

Adapted from https://www.poetryfoundation.org/search?query=romance+and+reality.

Romance and Reality

Military service is demanding and dangerous. As I write this, American soldiers serve in remote and hostile environments. For young leaders in today's Army, the war on terror constitutes a difficult and sometimes tragic reality.

Meanwhile, in the small classrooms of West Point, young cadets consider war through the eyes of Rudyard Kipling, Carl Sandburg, and John McCrae. During his or her plebe year, every West Point cadet takes a semester of English literature, reading and discussing poetry from Ovid to Owen, Spenser to Springsteen. Cadets must also recite poems from memory, a challenge that many graduates recall years later as one of their toughest hurdles.

Why, in an age of increasingly technical and complex warfare, would America's future combat leaders spend sixteen weeks studying the likes of irony, rhyme, and meter?

Poetry confronts cadets with new ideas that challenge their worldview. The West Point curriculum includes poetry, history, philosophy, politics, and law, because these subjects provide a universe of new ideas, different perspectives, competing values and conflicting emotions. In combat, our graduates face similar challenges: whether to fire at a sniper hiding in a mosque, or how to negotiate agreements between competing tribal leaders. Schoolbook solutions to these problems do not exist; combat leaders must rely on their own morality, their own creativity, their own convictions. In teaching cadets poetry, we teach them not what to think, but how to think.

Adapted from https://www.poetryfoundation.org/search?query=romance+and+reality.