Scam alert: social media hacking on the rise

Action Fraud has issued a warning about social media hacking after 22,530 people reported that their accounts had been hacked in 2023.

With access to your accounts, fraudsters can con your contacts, sell your info on the dark web and try to steal your identity.

Action Fraud has reported that some victims of email and social media hacking have been extorted by criminals who’ve stolen their private photos and videos.

Read on to discover how fraudsters hack your online accounts and how to recover them.

How scammers hack accounts

Fraudsters can access your online accounts in a variety of ways. If you find that one of your accounts has been hacked, you may be wondering how they gained access.

Here are some of the main ways a hacker can gain access:

A data breach: Responding to a phishing message:On-platform chain hacking: Credential stuffing: Shoulder surfing: Malicious apps: 

Protecting yourself from hacking

Some steps you can take to prevent your accounts from being hacked are:

Use a unique password for each account – don't use the same password across different accounts.

Update your devices – updates include protection from viruses.

Recovering hacked accounts

Go to the help page of the account provider and find out who to contact to get assistance with a hacked account. Ensure you change your password and log out of your account on all devices.

Check to see if any new ‘rules’ have been set up on your email account that you haven’t created. These can control where emails about your account are forwarded to.

Let your contacts know that you’ve been hacked and that any messages they receive are not from you.

Make sure you change passwords on other accounts in case fraudsters have also hacked into them, and check your bank statement for unauthorised transactions.

source https://www.which.co.uk/news/article/scam-alert-social-media-hacking-on-the-rise-aN1uI6o5E9uq