A rise in social media and email scams as sparked a new warning from Action Fraud, the UK fraud and cyber-crime reporting service, which recorded 35,434 reports from 2024.

This dwarfed the 2023 figure of 22,530 reports made to the service.

Action Fraud found that the most common motives for social media hacking were either investment fraud, ticket fraud, or theft of the targeted account.

Various methods of hacking were highlighted including on-platform chain hacking, leaked passwords, and phishing.

On-platform chain hacking

This is when a fraudster gains control of an account and begins to impersonate the legitimate owner in order to gain accesses to authentication codes and passcodes sent via text. Typically, victims believe that a friend is messaging them, but the shared code is associated with their own account and the impersonator can use it to access the victim account.

Usually when an account is taken over, fraudsters monetise control of the account via the promotion of various fraudulent schemes, like fake tickets or crypto investment schemes, while impersonating the original account owner.

Leaked passwords and phishing

The other common method of hacking is when account details are gained via phishing scams, or the use of leaked information used from data breaches, such as leaked passwords. This becomes prevalent as people often use the same password for multiple accounts, so a leaked password from one website can leave many of their online accounts vulnerable to hacking.

Recommended

• TSB Claims That Meta Accounts Lead to 80% of Fraud Cases
• Big Tech’s Pledge to Tackle Fraud Falling Flat, Which? Says
• UK Scam and Fraud Complaints Reach Record Highs

“As social media and email account hacking remains the most reported cyber-crime this year, this Action Fraud campaign marks a critical issue for everyone who has online accounts. That’s why we’re raising awareness of the ways people can protect themselves online,” Adam Mercer, deputy director of Action Fraud, said.

“Follow Stop! Think Fraud advice and protect yourself online: enable 2-Step Verification on each online account you have – this will help prove your identity and stop fraudsters trying to steal or access your valuable information.

“Secure your social media and email accounts by ensuring each password is strong and uses three random words. Remember to never share your passwords with anyone else.”

Action Fraud has launched a campaign, with support from social media giant Meta, to inform the public on ways they can protect themselves from fraud and scams.

This includes enabling two-step verification to keep cyber-criminals out of accounts, even if a password has been compromised.

Further, email and social media passwords should be strong and different from all other passwords.