Hackers these days don’t come in the form of tech-savvy nerds.
All they need is the basic knowledge in social media process plus superb acting.
Hackers just sweet-talk would-be victim, pretending to be a friend or a friend of a friend, and suddenly, they get to own the details needed to take over one’s social media account.
With this evolving pattern, anyone can be a victim of hacking. And they attack when people least expect it, in their most unguarded moment.
Number one rule in social media is never ever trust anyone because you’ll never know when you are still communicating with the real owner of the account of the social media platform—the most susceptible of which is Facebook.
After the hacker takes over an account, he sends messages to the victim’s friends, asking for or borrowing money and with the smoothness of cash-sending transactions using GCash, the scammer can rake in a lot of money within minutes.
When the account owner realizes someone stole his Facebook account and identity, he could not do anything but try to reach most friends as possible to spread the bad news, hoping to minimize the damage.
Meanwhile, the hacker is going on a cash-picking binge from unsuspecting friends.
The sad part is even Facebook is not fast on acting on such incidents.
There’s no way an account owner can directly talk with a Facebook call center agent or customer service representative.
The hacking victim can only ask friends to report the stolen account but even after 24 hours the stolen account remains active even if there are complaints already.
It’s nice, helpful and convenient to use social media in our daily lives, but when things go wrong, we people are left to fend for ourselves.
Even the police said authorities are helpless in acting fast on unmasking the hacker of social media accounts due to strict privacy laws.
And when remedies are done, damage has been done.
There is a legal maxim quod factum est infectum fieri non potest, which means what has been done cannot be undone.
The golden rule is, when someone asks for money through messenger, confirm first by asking a video call to prove the real identity of the person sending messages.
Be cautious, social media are not always a bed of roses, whatever Bon Jovi says.