It isn’t news that fraudulent social media profiles pose a serious threat to the reputation of the victim—whether that is a brand or an individual. What may be more surprising is that verified social media accounts are becoming readily available for purchase on the Dark Web.
Because social media platform X has lax requirements for validating an account holder’s identity, it has become a mecca for those trading in this illicit marketplace. To verify a profile on X, someone just needs to pay a monetary fee; no actual identification is required to validate the user of an account. Scammers look for dormant accounts belonging to an organization or the compromised account of an influential executive and acquire them by paying a small registration fee. Once fraudsters begin posting misleading content or links to phishing sites, the reputational damage is done.
The best offense against scammers like these is a proactive defense.
Follow password best practices such as Multi Factor Authentication to reduce the chance of an account being compromised.
Remove inactive personal or company accounts to prevent them from being redistributed on the black market.
Unfortunately, these steps alone may not be enough to keep your profile from being sold on the Dark Web. There are sophisticated platforms to detect compromised accounts and experts who liaise with the social media platforms to takedown fraudulent accounts.
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Cick here for more on fraudulent profile remediation.
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