Cybercrime unit warns of social media scam

Cybercrime police on Friday warned the public about messages that attempt to intercept user’s login credentials on social media, especially on Instagram.

Specifically, users receive a message from a person they know on Instagram, which lets them know that they will receive a password on his behalf, then asking them to reveal it.

However, the password concerns the recipient’s own accounts and not the sender who is in fact using a compromised account of another unsuspecting victim.

In this way, scammers gain a recipient’s trust leading to their account also being compromised.

The compromised accounts are then used to push cryptocurrency investments onto the account’s friends or followers.

These messages are malicious and aim at financial gain as well as at gaining access into the recipient’s own account to then scam other unsuspecting users, police said.

Additionally, there have been incidents recently were aside from users losing access to social media accounts, their devices have been compromised.

Police call on the public to be especially careful and not reveal any login credentials to anyone. Moreover, it advises users to activate the two-factor authentication feature on their electronic accounts.

In case a user receives a suspect message or request, they should communicate separately with the individuals appearing to be sending the message to confirm the request.

Any users who have acted on instructions from such scams, should immediately change their login credentials.

For more information and advise in relation to internet scams the public can visit cybercrime police website at www.cyberalert.cy