Saudi- Users warned of social media fraud

(MENAFN- Arab News) Madinah Chamber of Commerce Trade Committee Chairman Mahmoud Rashwan has warned people against dealing with unknown accounts on Twitter, especially those that promote the sale of followers, a phenomenon that has been growing recently. "E-Business should be reduced, especially that of companies that work in land marketing that use social networks as a field for their activities," Rashwan said. "Users should make sure that any financial transfer is secure and trustworthy," he said. Rashwan's warning was issued after the emergence of fictitious companies on Facebook and Twitter. "Fake accounts that are spread throughout social networks are like a black market," he said. "We call on all citizens to use licensed and well-known accounts; we call on relevant authorities to monitor these accounts." Twitter spokesman Jim Browser said earlier the company combats malicious and fake sources. Twitter filed a lawsuit against a company responsible for more than one-fifth of unwanted e-mails. The problem lies in fake accounts and the difficulty to distinguish them from genuine accounts. "We still have a number of manual and technical methods at our disposal to combat these cases and eliminate them," he said. Economic analyst Abdulghani Al-Ansari said the phenomenon is listed under financial fraud because these accounts or companies sell something they don't own, and they don't work under the supervision of the company that established Twitter. Al-Ansari said the virtual world is full of good and bad practices. Dealing with this reflects the level of the society's and individual consciousness. This puts the educational role of relevant authorities before their supervisory and legal roles, because educated people are less likely to fall victims to fraud. Mahmoud Refa', a researcher in technology, said users who buy followers are those who want to show off their social standing. They don't know these are inactive accounts of little value. Refa' said some people buy followers for logical reasons, especially if they wanted a name that is already used and want people to follow their actual account. Others increase the number of followers to look for advertisers, because advertising aims to reach the largest possible number of users. Some websites claim they can sell up to 1,000 followers for SR150 per month; while others sell 100,000 followers for SR1,000. Owners of these accounts ask for the user's data, which includes the username and his password. Other websites exchange and circulate accounts. This means a user registers and follows 100 accounts, the owners of these accounts will follow the user; these accounts are realistic but they belong to foreigners, who will stop following the account if they have nothing in common. Hamad Al-Khalidi, an owner of one of these accounts, said it takes five days and SR1,000 to collect 100,000 followers. He said there are specialized programs to take in a number of followers for a certain account, and then retweets 125 posts daily for a month for SR250, or five retweets daily for SR30.