The Risk of You

Financial Fraud Threat and The Increase In Scams On Social Media

Financial fraud is on the rise, and social media is one of the main platforms that scammers are using to target victims. It’s important to be aware of the dangers of financial fraud and how to protect yourself from it. Regularly carrying out due diligence whether you are a business or individual is essential to your safety.

If you are a business, you may have a communications manager or social media manager who takes care of this this for you.

By Chizubel Egwudo

12 Essential Ways To Build Personal and Business Resilience To Financial Fraud and Other Scams.

There are a few important ways to protect yourself from financial fraud. I have put together a few simple but essential steps you can take to protect yourself and assets.

  1. Be cautious of the accounts you choose to follow on social media. If someone seems too good to be true, they probably are. The desire to grow followership often leads people to accept anyone into their network. Remember, your network is your net worth or net loss. Credible people or organisations may judge you based on your followers. Few and credible is always better than many and junk followers.
  2. Be cautious about emails and social media communications purporting to be from financial institutions or other businesses you deal with. These can be phishing scams designed to steal your information.
  3. Don’t give out personal information like your National Insurance (Social Security) number or bank account number to anyone online. For businesses, ensure you carry out proper due diligence checks. Use background checking resources like Credence or Refinitiv’s World Check for KYC (Know Your Customer) Screening and Due Diligence checks.
  4. Be careful of offers or business proposals that seem too good to be true. If something seems too good to be true, as it is often said, ‘when in doubt, leave it out’. But if you must venture as the risk taker that you are, carry out your due diligence. Ask for a virtual meeting, most criminals will decline a facial recognition.
  5. Don’t pay for anything using a wire transfer. This is a common way that scammers will try to get your money.
  6. Protect your credible followers, customers and enable privacy settings that blocks access to your connections on your social media platforms, that way you pay it forward too.
  7. Perform social media account verification. Some platforms will allow you to see the geographic location (country) where a social media account holder is domiciled. Use this to verify accounts. Some social media accounts are clones or fakes, you will find that there is discrepancy in the domiciled region of the real account and the fake. Remove, block, report fake accounts following you. It could be bad for your reputation if you leave them in.
  8. Review your credit card and bank statements regularly to look for any unauthorised charges. Don’t forget to remove card details from shopping portals where you have previously saved them.
  9. Keep your computer’s security software up-to-date to help protect against malware and other online threats. If a business, carrying out network test such as penetration testing, ethical hacking may help you identify your networks weakest link. If you are a small business, use a private LAN if possible and when out and about, using your mobile phone’s hotspot may be more secure than using public WiFi’s.
  10. When shopping online, make sure the site you’re using is secure. You can tell if a site is secure if the URL starts with “”https”” and there is a padlock icon next to it.
  11. Use strong passwords for all of your online accounts and don’t use the same password for multiple accounts.
  12. Understanding the types of financial fraud and scams that exist will help you put in place the appropriate controls and will help you be on the lookout for suspicious activities.

Financial fraud is a serious threat to both individuals and businesses. Despite best efforts to prevent it, financial fraud still occurs with alarming frequency. By following these tips, you can help protect yourself from financial fraud and other scams.

If you would like to learn how we can help protect your business from these threats and build resilience for your business, please contact us using the contact options here to get in touch with my team.

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