Social engineering hoaxes are still very present – day by day – and the security company ESET has been following the most recent cybercriminal movements in this context. Specifically, what is happening with Instagram through account cloning.
What happens in these situations? Someone creates a fake account by publishing your photos and information that they get from the original profile or other social networks. Of course, indicating that this is a “new account after losing access to the original.”
The false profile, being managed by a malicious person, begins to follow contacts that the original account maintains a reciprocal relationship. Even some who are private and need to accept. Thus, the cybercriminal could have a greater opportunity to deceive someone if they already accepted that they could follow her.
Once they are followed, the cybercriminal sends messages to these followers thanking them for accepting the request and regretting that their Instagram account was stolen, in addition to attacking their bank accounts. Therefore, he does not have money and thus asks for monetary help with a transfer, stealing the money from this acquaintance or friend with good will to help.
Replicating the scam on Instagram
Jake Moore, a researcher at ESET, decided to do an experiment to see how much people fall for an Instagram scam with these characteristics. He created a fake profile – on his own account – and made up a story getting some friends to want to send him money.
According to Moore, what most caught his attention is that no one contacted him in any other way (by phone or another social platform) to ask him if what happened to him was true and the request for money was real. In addition, it was all very fast for someone to accept to send you money without any type of verification and therefore this psychological game of telling a bad experience predisposes people to help quickly.
We recommend reducing the amount of personal information published on social networks, through text or photographs. It can deliver – or say – something beyond a friendship or family connection, including routines, places you visit, and even the way you communicate.
In addition, no matter how close the relationship with a person is, question any direct or indirect request that involves money or the delivery of your personal data. Analyze these types of anomalous situations carefully.
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