How to Stay Safe from Email and Social Media Lottery Scams?

An email message arrived into your inbox with the subject – “You have won 5 Million in Lottery” or “You can win 5 Million in just 5 seconds”. These subject lines are so intriguing that one immediately opens the email message to grab the money as soon as possible. But wait, many of us are unaware of the fact that these messages are nothing but online scams.

Not just emails, the advent of social media has opened new doors for attackers to trap their target using one way or the other. For instance, attackers impersonate as someone genuine to befriend individuals with open friend lists and expand their network by sending friend requests to their friends. This way they build a genuine profile and execute their attack.

Messages of lottery scams generally ask for some sort of advance money along with the target’s bank account and identity details so as to transfer the money won by him/her. But what do they do with such data? Well, this data is further used for stealing accounts by using different attack methods, such as Brute Force Attack.

How Not to Become a Target of Brute Force Attack?

• Hide your friend list from all social media channels like Facebook so that others cannot see the people you know about.
• Never add someone as a friend over social media if you’re not familiar with them in real life. Double check before you hit the ‘confirm’ button.
• Messages regarding special deals, exclusive offers, prizes, and competitions should be avoided. In case you wish to check its legitimacy, visit the official website of the brand/business and make a call.
• Never pay an advance fee to anyone over the internet. Agents, technicians, etc. could be scammers looking out for money by fooling people. Therefore, avail services only from recognized sources.
• In case you find a profile or web page as fake, immediately report it as spam by choosing the suitable option.
• Use advanced security tools such as anti-spam and anti-phishing software to avoid receiving spam messages.

Share with us if you have encountered any incident of online attacks. Also, read our post on 5 Bad Online Practices that Affect your Privacy.