Small businesses are reliant on Instagram and Facebook for customers and marketing growth. A sizeable number of sales, brand awareness, and audience engagement come from these sites. Companies with 100 employees or fewer experience 350% more social engineering attacks than larger companies, according to Barracuda, a cloud security company. Being a small company on Instagram is a gold mine for criminal hackers.
It's difficult to rely on Meta as they receive hundreds of complaints a day and can’t do much once an account Is taken or If money is lost. Smaller businesses don’t have the means to invest in cyber security compared to larger companies. Therefore, being able to identify the kinds of scams will go a long way.
Here are two common Instagram scams to look out for and how to avoid them.
Phishing Scams
These scams try to get you to click a link. It won’t be as suspicious as “Hey, click on this weird link for a CASH PRIZE!” Instead, it’ll look more like:
“Hey! I’m with Jewelry K, a beauty brand, and we love your business model. Let’s collab, just click on the link I sent you if you're interested!”
The second one looks more enticing than the first. But a quick delve into the account will show that Jewelry K is not a real company. The company will barely have any posts, barely have any followers, and the profile picture will be super generic, a stock image, or not even there. To be on the safe side, a quick Google search doesn’t hurt. Most small businesses have websites for their products. The absence of a website is another red flag.
Fake Accounts
An example of a fake account is a cybercriminal will impersonate a Meta employee in your message inbox:
"There was an error with your post. Click HERE, we'll help you fix it."
Seems official at first glance. But a message about a post error, or any account troubles will arrive as an official email, not a personalized DM from a random employee.
They’ll also impersonate people or other company accounts asking them to invest in business deals or similar. When this occurs, you can usually tell if your friend is talking differently than their usual self. Check the account name for any variations of the username (to prove it’s a different account), and if there are any missing posts. Contact the person outside of Instagram and ask if it was them messaging about a deal.
Common Sigs of a Scam Message
There are a few giveaways to identify a scam message.
- They have either zero or very few posts. Most accounts, especially brand accounts, would have several posts about trying to market themselves. To have little to no posts is suspicious.
- Poor follower-following ratio. Following a large number of accounts while lacking followers indicates they quickly tried to imitate a real account
- Poor grammar and misspellings. Official accounts will write in formal and proper language when approaching about a business deal.
- They blatantly ask for personal information, money, or ask to click on a link. Don't ever give your information without it being through official channels.
- Sometimes they'll offer gifts, collaborations, or money. If it's too good to be true, don't trust it.
- Some messages will be threats of deleting or banning your account; only trust official Instagram emails through your email inbox.
Most scam attempts rely on the other party, you, clicking on a link. Without that, a hacker is powerless. Keep in your business bio that all inquiries should go through your email. Consider budgeting into a cyber security plan for your small business. You can find ways to approach it in our article about easy ways to invest in cyber security.
Once you budget into business proposals for a cyber security plan, you’ll realize that you may need some capital. That’s why Idea Financial is here to aid in business ventures. With a line of credit, you’ll be able to fund into a budget plan for the safety of your business.
