Avoiding Investment and Payment Scams Online  — Takeaways We are sharing tips and product tools across Facebook Messenger, WhatsApp and Instagram to help people avoid online investment and payment scams. Since the start of 2024, we have detected and disrupted over seven million accounts associated with scam centers across Myanmar, Laos, Cambodia, the United Arab Emirates and the Philippines. To help protect people targeted by scammers across the internet, we’re also supporting the FBI’s Level Up program, which aims to minimize financial loss from investment scams linked to known scam centers.

You’d never fall for an online scam, right?  — Wrong, says cybersecurity expert. Con artists use time-tested tricks that can work on anyone regardless of age, IQ — what’s changed is scale. Online scams are on the rise. Last year, American consumers lost $12.5 billion due to cybercrime, which represents a 22 percent increase over the previous year, according to a report by the FBI. Cybercriminals use psychological trickery to dupe victims into giving up their money, and their tactics are becoming more sophisticated. They post fake ads on social media platforms, send emails with phishing links or malware, and recently in the Boston area, solicit payments for unpaid tolls via text message.