Matthew Maurer is the owner and operator of Nikik Digital Solutions, and he is using Facebook to share videos about scams he has found in La Ronge community pages.
He has gained followers, and they are tagging him in posts to investigate and check into the suspicious posts.
“The videos I have been posting have been around kind of dissecting scams that you commonly see online through social media or through email, also phone scams,” said Matthew Maurer. “Essentially, what I am trying to do is just kind of show people how to detect what is a scam and kind of show them the process that the scammers go through to get information out of you and to bring awareness to different kinds of scams.”
He says he’s been finding most of the posts on Facebook community groups, including buy and sell groups or business pages.
“Some of the biggest red flags for scams are repeated text, so a lot of scammers will use the same text because it’s something they know that works, so, they will have a bunch of different accounts using the exact same text in a bunch of different Facebook groups,” explained Maurer.
He says scammers use social media and Facebook groups to find their targets and then they will use WhatsApp to communicate. The scammers have been using WhatsApp because it is more encrypted and harder to get blocked on.
If you want to protect yourself and family members from the many scams, Maurer has a few simple tips and tricks to share.
“You can go on YouTube or search online for different kinds of scams or watch scammer videos; talk with friends and family and letting them know what you know; keeping the conversation going so people are aware of what kind (of scams) there are; and not sharing personal information with people that you don’t know or can’t verify, like if the bank is calling you for information and your not sure if it is actually them; just hang up and call the number on the back of your card,” explained Maurer.
If you want to view his videos on how to identify scammers in social media visit Nikik Digital Solutions Facebook Business Page.
(Photo submitted by Matthew Maurer)