‘Tis the Season (For Social Scams)
While using social media as a marketing tool is generally a fantastic way to support your brand’s marketing goals in a highly agile and measurable way, one of the downsides to this strategy is the risk of having your accounts scammed.
In recent weeks we’ve seen an increase in social media scams and hacks, so we’ve pulled together an overview of things we think that marketers should be aware of:
Phishing messages
Probably the most prominent scam we see all year round is emails or DMs that purportedly come from representatives of major social media platforms, inviting you to click on a link. We’ve seen these come from fake accounts right across the social media market – from Instagram and Facebook to LinkedIn.
A common strategy for scammers is to send an email advising of an issue with the social media account, with instructions to click on a link.
These emails can be sophisticated, so it’s easy to get caught out – especially when you may well receive legitimate emails from your social media channels of choice if you are a brand page or advertiser.
If you are on the receiving end of any unsolicited email or DM from a social media platform, our advice is to proceed with caution by:
NEVER clicking any links within the message until you have verified the message and sender
NEVER providing password, authentication or verification details to anyone, under any circumstances
Checking the sender’s email address to see if the domain is legitimate (for example, legit Facebook emails will always come from an @fb.com, @facebook.com or @facebookmail.com domain
If you do receive a dodgy email or DM, report it to the channel so that they can take action – for example, you can report Facebook phishing messages to phish@fb.com
What to do if you get hacked
Recently, we’ve also seen examples of brand social accounts being hacked and taken over – this is an absolute nightmare, both to manage and to put right.
In the event that you experience a hack, reach out to the platform in question straight away as, if you act quickly, you may still be able to secure your account. Here are some helpful links to help you get started:
If you are working with a specialist social media agency, reach out to them as well – like us, they will be able to contact a legitimate representative of the platform to help move things along as quickly as possible. Your agency might also have helped other clients in similar situations in the past and be able to offer advice on what worked.
Two quick ways to help keep your accounts secure
There are a few things you can do, right now, to secure your account – but these are the two fastest and easiest:
Audit account access
If your brand’s social accounts have been running for some time, chances are that you have Admins on them who should be deleted. This is usually because they have left the company, or because you’re no longer using a third-party party agency that previously needed access. Go through all of your social accounts and check that the right people are on there. It also pays to have two trusted Admins, in case one is ever locked out.
Enable two-factor authentication
If you don’t have two-factor authentication set up on your accounts, go and do it right now. This is the simplest way to reduce your risk of being hacked.
Looking for more advice on best practice in managing your social media marketing? Talk to us.