Social media a scammers’ playground

Social media, AI, and human trust led to a record-breaking year of advanced scams and personal data loss, according to a recent report on cyber safety.

The 2024 fourth quarter Gen Threat Report reveals a surge in online threats, with 2.55 billion cyberthreats blocked in October to December, equalling 321 threats every second. The risk ratio of encountering threats reached 27.7%, with social engineering attacks comprising 86% of all blocked threats.

Gen is a global company with various cyber safety brands, and almost 500 million users in more than 150 countries. “We’re continuing to see scam-related threats becoming far more dangerous as they hide, sometimes in plain sight, throughout every aspect of our digital life,” says Siggi Stefnisson, Cyber Safety CTO at Gen. In 2025 we only expect these risks to increase as the rise of AI-powered systems and devices will mark the next frontier for cybercrime,” he predicts.

Mobile phones and their users were found to be at high risk. Additionally, phishing attacks rose by 14% in the last three months of 2024, with many exploiting platforms for creating websites such as Wix, and spoofing brands such as Apple iCloud with fake invoice scams. Malvertising remained a leading method of driving scams and malware delivery, comprising 41% of all blocked attacks for the quarter.

The report found that social media platforms remained one of the prime grounds for scams and cybercrime at the end of 2024. Facebook stood out, accounting for a staggering 56% of total identified threats. YouTube trailed behind at 24%, followed by X with 10%, and Reddit and Instagram both accounting for
3% of all social media threats.

The main social media scams were:
1. Deceptive online ads (Malvertising) (27%), directing people to malicious websites.
2. Fake e-shops (23%), luring people to fraudulent online stores, and exposing personal and financial data.
3. Phishing (18%), aimed at stealing sensitive information like credit card numbers or passwords.

To read the full report, visit gendigital.com