CYBERSECURITY experts have expressed concern about scammers on Meta’s new app Threads.
Threads is a new app built by the Instagram team for sharing text and photo updates.
The platform was launched in early July by Meta as a rival to Elon Musk’s Twitter.
Since it went live, the platform has been downloaded more than 100million times.
Overall, Threads has been well-recieved by users, however some cybersecurity experts have somme concerns.
One of their biggest issues is with scammers, who will likely utilize Threads’ interface to their advantage.
“Being such a modest website in terms of functionality, Threads is a gift to scammers,” Alanna Titterington writes for security firm Kaspersky.
Titterington added that Kaspersky has already discovered phishing pages imitating the web version of Threads.
Phishing is a scam where attackers deceive people into revealing sensitive information.
Typically, the goal of the scammer is to steal a user’s banking information, identity, or passwords.
Moreover, scammers have already began selling “Threads Coin” for cryptocurrency on the Web.
“Finally, another scam promises to generate tens of thousands of followers for a freshly created Threads account,” Titterington revealed.
“The obvious result of participating in any such schemes will only be the loss of money and personal data,” she added.
HOW TO STAY SAFE
There are steps you can take to protect your privacy from scammers when using Threads.
First, set your Threads account to private as this will prevent people who are not your friends from seeing your content.
You should make sure that you’ve set a strong unique password for your Instagram account, as well.
It’s important to be wary about what you share on Threads – never share sensitive or personal information.
Be mindful of the websites you visit and never click on suspicious-looking links as they could be malware-laden.
