4 tips to avoid falling victim to online fraud on social media

If you follow us on Facebook or Instagram, you'll sometimes see a competition pass by on your feed. Maybe you already participated yourself. And why not: competing is quick, easy and there are often lots of great prizes to be won!

Unfortunately, scammers are also aware of this and try to get their hands on your personal or financial data. That’s why we made a list of things to look out for when participating in social media contests.

1. Check whether the page is official

Before entering a contest, it is best to check the organiser's page. The following things may indicate that the page is not reliable:

• The page has no or hardly any followers
• The page has no profile picture or description
• There are no posts on the profile

To ensure the page is legit, it is best to look up the organiser's website and click through to their social media profile from there (this is often referenced at the bottom of the website).

2. Save the contest post you participated in

Sometimes scammers monitor contests from official pages, and take the opportunity to send participants a private message to get their details. In fact, it is not uncommon for winners to be contacted via this route.

If you participate in a contest whose organiser is trustworthy, save the post you participated in. This way you can be sure that you participated in the contest in question at all.

Furthermore, this way you can easily find the contest post, and from here you can click through to the page that organised the contest. Is it different from the profile you are contacting? Then it probably cannot be trusted, and you should report it via Safeonweb.be.

3. Do not pass on sensitive personal information

If you are contacted through social media as part of a contest, always think critically about what information is being requested, and whether it is relevant or necessary. Contests on social media are often set up to be as simple and accessible as possible, and so is the process of receiving your prize.

If you win tickets to a festival, for example, you will usually only have to provide your name and e-mail address (especially as most events work with e-tickets). If you win a physical prize, such as a nice bag or earphones, they may of course also need your address. They wouldn't normally need more than this.

So, if they ask for your bank details or national registration number, it's best to report this via Safeonweb.be.

4. Do not open unknown attachments or click on an unknown link

On social media, things often move very quickly. Therefore, alarm bells may not immediately go off when your prize or further information about your winnings are sent via a link or attachment. However, this can be a pitfall because it is difficult to tell whether the link or attachment is trustworthy or not.

Are you unsure if a situation is legitimate or not? Then ask to receive the information via email. If they refuse this, you can assume the profile is untrustworthy. If they agree, give them your e-mail address and pay attention to a few things before opening anything:

• Check your emails on a computer rather than your smartphone. This way you have a better view of the content of the mail and can also study links and attachments better.
• Check the e-mail address: does the name in the e-mail address match the name of the profile? Are there no spelling mistakes in it? Note: a legitimate e-mail address is no guarantee*.
• Check the link you have to click: hover your mouse over the link. Is the domain name, the word before .be, .com, .eu, .org... and before the very first slash "/", really the name of the organisation*?
• To be on the safe side, install the Safeonweb browser extension. This will warn you when you visit an unsafe website and when it is dangerous to enter your data*.

*Source: Safeonweb https://safeonweb.be/en/learn-identify-fake-e-mails