Scammers are directing people to Snapchat
TikTok is well known for its 15-second quirky movies, but users must also be on the watch for searchers on the social network.
Cybersecurity firm Tenable Released a 50-page report on Wednesday that outlined three types of scams it discovered on TikTok that entailed directing users to mature dating sites, impersonating popular consumers and fostering followers and likes.
“Given TikTok’s meteoric rise in popularity, it comes as no surprise that scammers would take note,” Tenable researcher Satnam Narang said in the report. “So far, these scams appear to be in their infancy.”
In March, Narang began tracking scammers on TikTok, which surpassed 1 billion downloads this season. A TikTok Spokeswoman said the ByteDance-owned company has pulled all the reports mentioned in the report also is based on a mixture of technology and user reports to rapidly identify accounts that violate its own principles against defrauding or misleading users onto the platform.
“TikTok has Strict policies safeguarding users against fake, deceptive or misleading content,” a company spokeswoman said in a statement. “We flag and eliminate most spam accounts until they could reach users’ needs, and we always enhance our protectionsas malicious actors work to evade our safeguards.”
TikTok declined to state how many bogus accounts are around the platform or how widespread the scams set out in the accounts are.
In 1 kind of scam, users stole videos from Snapchat and Instagram of girls in bikinis, dance or working out. Then they directed viewers to a Snapchat account it said included nude photographs. After users migrated to Snapchat, they would see photos and videos that evaporate in 24 hours of a female displaying nudity or performing sexual acts on himself, according to the report. Eventually, scammers would lead users to links to adult dating sites. The scammers made money when users clicked on those sites or became a paid consumer. The natives also asked users to pay money through PayPal to get”premium” Snapchat accounts which are contrary to the social networking company’s terms of service.
On Average, these mature dating scam accounts would have 650 followers and receive over 1,700 likes in their videos, according to the report. The most popular account the researcher found had over 12,300 followers.
A spokesman for Snapchat said it closed down the balances And pointed to the company’s rules again pornography and illegal actions.
In another scam, TikTok would be impersonated by users Influencers like Salice Rose and Baby Ariel and celebrities including Indian singer Neha Kakkar. From time to time, scammers would like to be a fan account or a backup account for a popular TikTok user.
Other Accounts offered followers and likes for TikTok accounts and other social networking websites such as Facebook, Instagram and Google-owned YouTube. Narang said it is reasonable that scammers would make the most of TikTok because of its rising popularity.
“When the next hyper-growth Platform seems, scammers will not be far behind,” Narang said in the report. “The strategies might change to suit the platform, but at its core, The scams will be the same.
