Cybersecurity expert Abdel Nour Sami confirmed that “paid ads on social media and blue verification marks are no longer sufficient,” noting that they have become available for symbolic amounts.
He told Al-Emarat Al-Youm, “Creating websites no longer requires high technical skills, after artificial intelligence tools facilitated the work of fraudsters.”
“Internet users are constantly being lured by tempting offers, regardless of whether they are real or fake,” he added, explaining that “the secret to the success of fraudulent advertising campaigns is that they are launched at the same time as real offers in order to imitate and steal them, as users think that it is a campaign affiliated with the real campaign and then respond to it.”
He explained that campaigns appear on social media platforms as a result of conversations with friends about restaurants, trips, and offers in general. Algorithms suggest ads that fit what they talked about, regardless of whether the paid ad is real or fraudulent.
He pointed out that this phenomenon can be addressed by contacting the restaurant or entity by phone to inquire about the offer, and asking about how to access the offers in the correct way, and whether it is possible to obtain these links by sending them to the phone while postponing payment upon receipt.
He explained that entities that do not provide the option of cash on delivery are likely to be fraudulent, given that all restaurants within the country provide the option of cash on delivery.
He also advised searching for the phone numbers attached to the offers through the Google website, for example, because they may be fake numbers.
He continued: “It is preferable to deal with official authorities when implementing any purchase offers, such as entering the official websites of famous restaurants and the well-known approved applications.”
He explained that there is another technical way to detect fake offers, which is by checking the suspicious link and comparing it with the actual link of the concerned party, and avoiding long and ambiguous links and paying attention to the slight differences such as “l and I” and “0 and O” and others.
He called on the concerned authorities to adopt the “ae” domain because it is difficult to seize, as is the case with other global domains, which only take minutes.
He pointed out the necessity of comparing the bank account attached to the advertisement with the entity’s social media accounts before making any purchase, in addition to verifying whether there is an existing offer or not, and also verifying the approved payment methods.
He continued: “It is preferable to allocate an independent card for online purchases to increase security, so that there is a limited amount on it that there is no problem in losing in the worst case.”
He stressed the need to inform the bank immediately upon exposure to any fraudulent operation in an attempt to recover the amount and limit further theft, and to close and replace the card, noting that there are specialized teams affiliated with banks that are responsible for responding to customer theft reports immediately.
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