| Characteristic | Number of social media scam attacks |
|---|---|
| Fake plugin* | 1% |
| Fake apps | 2% |
| Likejacking | 5% |
| Fake offering | 17% |
| Manual sharing | 76% |
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Source
Source
Release date
April 2016
More information
Region
Worldwide
Survey time period
2015
Supplementary notes
*Less than 1 percent.
Manual sharing: these rely on victims to actually do the work of sharing the scam by presenting them with intriguing videos, fake offers or messages that they share with their friends
Fake offering: these scams invite social network users to join a fake event or group with incentives such as free gift cards. Joining often requires the user to share credentials with the attacker or send a text to a premium rate number.
Likejacking: Using fake "like" buttons, attackers trick users into clicking website buttons that install malware and that may post updates on a user's newsfeed, spreading the attack.
Fake apps: users are invited to subscribe to an application that appears to be integrated for use with a social network, but is not as described and may be used to steal credentials or harvest other personal data.
Fake Plugin: users are invited to install a plugin to view a video, but the plugin is malicious and may spread by re-posting the fake video message to a victim’s profile page without permission. Examples include installing a fake YouTube premium browser extension to view the video, or noticing that a DivX plugin is required, and the fake plugin masquerades as such.
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