Usually, one can clone any social media account like Instagram, Facebook, LinkedIn, or any webpage to create new content with the same formatting and style to trick your friends into giving up their information. It is imperative to be vigilant since the cloning of web portals is evolving into trouble.
Cloning does not mean that the account is being hacked; it merely is web syndication that scammers copy all the posts, including images. The cloned site will bear nearly similar content as that of the original one but with a slightly different name and the URL.
Does the question arise that why somebody willing to do such illicit activity? What is the purpose behind doing such a scam?
The answer that I found, unexpectedly, is to make money. The cloners practice different methods to deceive advertisers into giving them money.
Although this seems like an innocuous prank, actually, it can cause real damage. Cloned pages can also harm search engines. If it spots being replicated elsewhere, it shows up less and less in search results over time. Additionally, the cloned accounts may induce your friends to share the money or other information. The scammers use the publicly available information to dupe your friends. Persuading to be the proprietor or say the possessor, the cloner could access your friend lending for some money to handle any extremity. At that time, you may respond without giving it a second thought as you believe the request came from your friend. This way, the scammers take advantage.
Most recently, the Norwegian parliament reported having been a target of a cyber-attack that contravene the emails of many members of Norway’s Labor Party. Another incident announced that the Chinese cyber spying group targeted different major organizations across Eastern Europe.
The scammers take advantage and increase their activities by targeting people who are not incredibly tech-savvy. The scammers approach the people on social media platforms more commonly by sending friend requests.
Phishing is also an emerging technique to trap and fool a target by crafting emails that appear to be from trusted sources to influence users to do something. A more targeted type of phishing is ‘spear phishing’. The scammers conduct research beforehand to create the most relevant messages to make it harder to identify. They make sure to make it credible enough.
The essential and foremost thing is to make people aware of such matters. Being familiar with it can make people stay cautious of the scammers and can help save their holdings. Probable measures to alleviate these threats may vary accordingly. Still, the security basics remain the same, like keeping databases up-to-date, setting strong passwords, upgrading systems, and making regular backups. Also, shared browsing services must be controlled to counter such attacks.