No, you didn’t win a free iPhone on Instagram

Social media scams are nothing new, but cyber thieves are still coming up with new tricks to get your personal information. If you use Instagram, you may have noticed a sudden rise in the number of strangers mentioning you in posts about winning for free. iPhone 13. The post says all you have to do is click the link in the description to claim it. This scheme is not new: it reappears every few years along with New iPhone version.

If you’ve been tagged in one — or more — of these posts, sorry, but there’s no free phone waiting for you. If you click on the link, you will be redirected to a webpage where you will be asked to enter some details and your credit or debit card information, according to a February report by Hindustan Times Tech.

Here’s how to spot a scam and how to protect against it.

What does the Instagram scam look like?

Here are two examples of what this scam looks like:

What should you do if you see an Instagram scam?

first in the first place first of all, Don’t click the link. This may seem obvious, but scammers are smart and use Phishing schemes to seize vulnerabilities, such as a person’s lack of technical expertise. There are a lot of legitimate lottery opportunities online, but if you get into any of them, you know that you are very unlikely to win. In addition, for a legitimate sweepstakes there should be accessible information about how the contest works, how you can enter, who is sponsoring the contest and similar important information, even if it is well written.

With social media scams, it is much more difficult to trace the path of digital paper back to the source, if there is a trace at all. If you do a separate search for the user who “tagged” you or the link they want you to click, it will likely show little or nothing in the Instagram app. Other red flags can include photoshopped images, lots of emojis, urgent language and spelling errors.

Ignoring the flag is an option, but there are many ways to tighten your Instagram security settings. Here are some other ways to protect yourself from this scheme:

Decide who can tag you in the comments

The best way to combat this particular scam is to block who can tag you in the comments of a post. Here’s what to do:

1. Open the Instagram app.
2. Click on your profile icon at the bottom right of the screen.
3. Tap on the settings bars in the upper right corner.
4. Choose settings.
5. Faucet Mentionsed.
6. Choose to allow bookmarks from Everyone, the people you follow or no one.

Decide who can tag you in photos

tagging other users in photos is common on social media, but you can get more control by adjusting the app’s settings.

1. Open the Instagram app.
2. Click on your profile icon at the bottom right of the screen.
3. Tap on the settings bars in the upper right corner.
4. Choose Settings.
5. Faucet Posts.
6. From here you can choose Allow tags from and choose Everyone, the people you follow or no oneas well as an option Manually approve tags.

Control who can message you

The “free iPhone” posts were mostly spotted in the comments, but there have been reports of DMs as well. Here’s how to quickly adjust message settings:

1. Open the Instagram app.
2. Click on your profile icon at the bottom right of the screen.
3. Tap on the settings bars in the upper right corner.
4. Choose Settings.
5. Faucet Messages.
6. From here you can choose whether messages from strangers appear in your main inbox, orders folder, or not received at all.

Report suspicious comments as spam

Since most of these fake contests appear in the comments, it is important to know how to report them. You can also report comments that don’t mention you, which can come in handy when conversations get heated up on a post. Here’s what to do:

1. Select the comment in the question.
2. Tap the speech bubble that contains the exclamation point icon. This should appear at the top of the screen in a blue banner.
3. Select Report this comment. You can also choose to block the account.

Set your account to private

Making your Instagram account private is a general security measure. If your account is set to private, other users will have to request to follow you. If you accept the request, they can view your content. It’s easy to change this setting:

1. Open the Instagram app.
2. Click on your profile icon at the bottom right of the screen.
3. Tap on the settings bars in the upper right corner.
4. Choose Settings.
5. Faucet Privacy.
6. Switch to private account.

For more information, check out Disguised phishing tactics as ‘fun’ Watch out for her on social media, and Browser settings must be changed to protect your privacy.