There has been a worrying rise in the number of people losing control of their social media and email accounts this year. According to recent data from Action Fraud, the UK’s national cybercrime reporting center, over 35,000 cases were reported in 2024. This is a huge increase compared to the 22,000 cases recorded the previous year.
To address this growing problem, Action Fraud has teamed up with Meta to start an online safety campaign. Their main goal is to help people secure their accounts by turning on two-step verification, also known as 2FA. This extra security step makes it much harder for hackers to break into accounts.
Hackers usually target social media or email profiles for money. Once they gain access, they often pretend to be the real user and reach out to the person’s friends or followers. Many times, they use these stolen accounts to promote fake investment schemes or sell fake event tickets. In other cases, hackers simply sell these hacked accounts to others who use them for illegal activities.
One trick commonly used by hackers is messaging the account owner’s contacts and convincing them to share security codes. Since the message appears to come from a trusted person, many people unknowingly share sensitive information, giving hackers further control.
Another method involves stealing login information through phishing scams or data leaks. If people use the same password for many sites, hackers can easily access multiple accounts once they crack one.
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