08/16/2021 1:59 PM
Clarín.com
Technology
Updated 08/16/2021 1:59 PM
As a social network increases its user volume, it becomes an increasingly desirable target for scammers.
On Instagram, one of the most popular platforms in the world, many criminals spend hours looking for a way to deceive users,
whether it is to steal their account or obtain their card details.
The scammers detected a vulnerability that the social network offers
against suicides, self-harm and identity theft.
What digital hackers do is
veto accounts with false reports
where users are accused of violating terms and conditions.
Once the account is closed, they ask for money in exchange for recovering it
, explained a report from the
Motherboard
site
.
Cybercriminals typically create an account and
report profiles for violating policies
regarding suicide and self-harm.
When the Instagram algorithm detects that there are many complaints received, it automatically removes this profile.
Scammers charge to get the Instagram account back.
AFP photo
The next step for scammers is to offer their "services" so that the user can
recover it through a payment
.
As much as he tries to recover it on his own, only the criminal has the key to achieve it.
Clandestine sites
In the clandestine pages you can hire services to block certain accounts in exchange for a sum of money.
At the same time, these forums would also
allow to restore these accounts
that have been disabled by the platform itself.
The main target of this scam is the influencers, who use the social network to earn money and are willing to pay the ransom to reestablish contact with their followers.
If the owner intends to recover his account, he will have to pay a large sum of money.
Depending on the number of followers under his belt, the amount
can exceed $ 3,500
.
Owners must pay $ 3,500 to get their account back AFP Photo
In case the owner refuses to extortion, the scammer can disable an account, create a new one and once verified by the platform, modify the personal data and the image
to impersonate the victim's identity
.
Another method is the fraudulent report that activates the protocol of the suicide or self-harm policy of Instagram.
There are even scripts (script) that can be found on the Internet to make mass complaints in an automated way.
The service offerings to disable accounts have prices that, according to the Motherboard portal,
vary between 5 and 60 dollars.
These two illicit businesses are linked, since shortly after being the target of a fraudulent disqualification, a message may arrive offering the possibility of recovering the profile in exchange for money.
Motherboard did a survey and concluded that these scams are due to "personal revenge or commercial competition or simple envy."
Although the methodology was unknown so far, they indicated that it is very recurrent and that from Instagram they are already aware, so
they are investigating to sanction the responsible accounts
that report without reasons.
Online scams are becoming more frequent: in recent days one that operates through WhatsApp was spread.
SL
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