The Risk Management Group - The A to Z of Safe Social Media

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R ecommendations

Social media fraudsters sometimes setup one fake profile in order to recommend other faked profiles to people. The first profile is never used for fraud or to collect data – only the recommended profiles do that. This approach allows the fraudster to create the impression of an innocent network of friends where, in fact, there is only one person - the fraudster. This may lead innocent users to trust the recommended fake profiles on the basis that they are ‘friends of a friend’.

Sanity Check Number Eighteen:

Do you accept friend recommendations from online friends you don’t know well?

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Produced by The Risk Management Group 2012

Copyright Mark Johnson & Corinne Blandin, 2012