Facebook users vulnerable to social media scams

A new study says habitual use of Facebook makes people susceptible to social media phishing attacks by criminals, generally because they automatically respond to requests without considering how they are connected with those sending them.

“Social media phishing is the attack vector of choice among cyber criminals and has been implicated in crimes ranging from home invasion to cyber bullying, illegal impersonation ofindividuals and organisation, and espionage,” said Dr Arun Vishwanath, author of the Journal of Computer-Mediated Communication study.

“These scams attempt to trick people into accepting friend requests and gathering intel from them. Hence, understanding why individuals fall victim to social media phishing scams is important from an organisational security, law enforcement and national security standpoint.”