The report carried out by Arkose Labs for their Q3 Fraud and Abuse report shows that 53% of all logins on social media are fake. Meanwhile, approximately 25% of all new social media account applications are also fraudulent.
Who are creating these fake logins?
The report by Arkose Labs shows that almost 75% of all social media attacks are carried out by automated bots, who create fake logins with the aim of stealing information, spreading spam and executing campaigns online in order to target consumers.
Popular forms of online fraud include abuse, spam, account hijacking as well as social media account creation.
The rise of account hijackings on social media
Another interesting aspect revealed by the report carried out by Arkose was that account hijackings were far more likely to happen on social media channels than elsewhere.
The report looked at fraud across the internet (including logins and payments from financial services, e-commerce, travel and entertainment industries alongside social media) .
In fact, login details were twice as likely to be attacked than account registrations.
Why are social media accounts being attacked?
Fraudsters are trying to hijack user’s social-media logins as a way of trying to harvest valuable personal data from legitimate users. In addition, profit is a huge motivating factor for attackers on social media.
This also presents challenges for brands and agencies, since number of genuine followers can be inflated and engagement levels can be easily misconstrued. Providing an online strategy across brands and social is something that is now a huge focus for agencies in the UK, which leading companies including Tudor Lodge, Brains and ZAK Agency.
Arkose also mentioned the use of apps to help limit social media attacks.
Where are most attacks coming from?
The data has shown that the areas where most fraudulent attacks are coming from online are the US, UK, Indonesia and the Philippines. However, the latter country is where the most attacks for both attacks carried out by humans and automated bots, with the US coming in second place.
What can you do to stay safe online?
For those with active social media accounts on facebook and Instagram, always make sure that you have a private setting and do not keep your profile open for anyone to see. Whilst it is nice to share your location, think twice when sharing things like your email address, mobile phone number, date of birth and employment. The more information you give, the more you are potentially giving a fraudster to use against you.
