In a world where Elizabeth Holmes, Anna Delvey and the Tinder Swindler co-exist, it seems like scammers are waiting for unsuspecting victims around every corner. Sometimes, those victims are even sophisticated finance professionals.
Andrew, a 27-year-old certified financial planner, learned this lesson the hard way last month when he was conned out of $3,000 by someone impersonating an investment advisor on Instagram. According to cybersecurity experts, Andrew – who asked for his last name to be withheld to protect his job security – is far from alone.
More than 95,000 people lost a collective $770 million in scams or hacks initiated on social media platforms in 2021, according to the Federal Trade Commission. Such issues “will become part of our daily life,” Theresa Payton, CEO of Fortalice Solutions and a former White House CIO, tells CNBC Make It. “We’re going to have to put up with them, just as there used to be people trying to cash out fake checks.”
Part of the reason social media scams and hacks are so frequent, Payton says, is because of who and how they target their victims online. She says several high-profile people, from Elon Musk to President Joe Biden, have been caught in similar types of schemes.
“Fraudsters and cybercriminals could actually teach a masterclass in human behavior,” she said. “They find people who are legitimate, who have a following, who have a great background, then lure them in using social media engineering, so they can lure in other…
