What comes to mind when you think of someone getting scammed? A grandma on the phone with some jerk? If so, this will probably surprise you.

The total money lost by teens in online scams grew by nearly 2,500% between 2017 and 2022. Victims under the age of 20 lost a staggering $210 million in 2022 alone.

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Social media account hacking is on fire … not in a good way. Account hijacking has grown by as much as 1,000% annually in the last few years, with celebrities and politicians so mad about it they’re starting to sue.

The chances of your Instagram, X, Facebook or other account (even Spotify!) getting taken over by spammy bots and data-stealing thieves have never been higher. So don’t sit there all smug thinking, “Oh Kim, that could never happen to little ol’ me!”

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There’s fake news, and there’s fake celebrity news. Guess which one is spread the most and does the most damage on social media? You’re so smart. Yup, it’s fake celebrity news.

ExpressVPN’s 2023 Misinformation Index includes a whole lineup of our famous friends who got caught up in a mess of misinformation. Let’s dig into some of the wildest, weirdest stories.

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New word for you: Grandfluencer. That’s grandparent + influencer for all the folks trading in retirement for social media fame. We’re talking millions of followers, thousands of comments … and a lot of money. One paid post can land a particularly big grandfluencer over $150K. 

Take 79-year-old Lynn Yamada Davis, for example. She rakes in a cozy six-figure salary from her Cooking With Lynja channels. Over 17 million people have watched her build a 10-foot hotdog and make popcorn with a hair straightener. Unusual? Yes. Entertaining? Definitely. 

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Rumors have been swirling for years that Facebook will start charging. Before, it was fiction. Now? Well, it’s looking more like fact.

You can thank the latest European Union (EU) privacy regulations — and I mean that. These new regulations do a lot to protect the sensitive data of consumers like you and me. 

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With the intense war unfolding in Israel and Gaza, I bet your social media feed is loaded with photos and videos that can be so very difficult to stomach. From heart-wrenching scenes of hostage situations, beheadings, murders, bombings and other grim realities of war, it’s everywhere.

We all want to know what’s going on, no doubt. Many of these social media posts fill the void of official updates and reveal the brutalities of conflict. But — and this is a big BUT — not everything you see online is the real deal. Some content might be doctored or taken out of context and violate those depicted’s privacy and human rights.

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The images, stories and videos of Israel and Gaza are horrifying, aren’t they? You know what that fuels — a slew of misleading info making the rounds on social media. 

Have you seen that viral video showing an Israeli airstrike? It was being shared left and right on social showing Israel’s retaliation against a sudden attack by Hamas from last Saturday. But here’s the catch: That footage is old news from May, confirmed by Reuters.

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Your profile picture is more important than you might think. It’s your chance to put a good first impression out into the world. That’s why you must know how to take the perfect profile picture for all your accounts.

Say you’re applying for a new job. Potential employers will run background checks on your social media presence. You need to have good pictures that show you at your best.

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Making money online is not just for big brands, e-commerce store owners or niche entrepreneurs. Almost anyone can become a profitable influencer with the right content and an engaged audience. 

Lately, a new player has entered the influencer arena: Amazon. Capitalizing on this modern way to sell products, Amazon has cut out the middleman and is attracting influencers from social platforms into their consumers’ shopping experience. It’s called Amazon Inspire, and it’s only been available to the public since May 2023.

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Food labels are hard to make sense of — Do we really need “use by,” “best buy” and “sell by”? — and lead to a lot of food waste, to the tune of 80 million tons each year.

That’s why Carlos Thompson’s company created Reusables, an augmented-reality filter that shows what you can do with the food you don’t want to eat anymore.

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What started as a fun way to keep in touch with friends and family has devolved into a hotbed of fake news, scams, data breaches cyberbullying and little to no privacy.

Social media has come a long way from its roots, and most news is bad. But it’s one thing to put yourself out there and another to post information about your children. Social media on its own is harmful to children without your involvement. Don’t make it worse. Consider this your tech etiquette lesson of the day.

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A new study from the Surgeon General’s office concludes that social media is harmful to young people’s mental health. It’s presented as a new and urgent conclusion. Surgeon General Vivek Murthy even said in an interview, “We’ve got to move quickly” to respond to this pressing problem.

We agree, but what took him so long? He’s been in the job almost three years and this is as far as he’s gotten?

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For over 27 years, a very outdated law has shaped the internet. It’s Section 230 of the 1996 Communications Decency Act. And it has some profound implications. 

It protects online platforms like Facebook, TikTok, Instagram and Twitter from being held responsible for what users post … even if that content encourages terrorist radicalization.

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Endless scrolling every morning. Hours wasted on TikTok after work. What’s the best way to build better habits regarding your relationship with your phone?

Digital wellness has been a huge topic of concern recently. Apple and Android devices claim to prioritize the mental health of their users. One of our favorite ways to maximize productivity is through features that limit the amount of time we spend on entertainment platforms like Instagram, YouTube and the rest.

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Companies usually alert you when something suspicious happens to your account. For example, when you log into Facebook from a location you typically don’t, you get a notification.

Similarly, when Instagram detects a new login from an unusual device or location, it can send you an email. This is seemingly the only method for contacting you, as it doesn’t have a dedicated messenger like Facebook. Tap or click here for details on a viral Facebook Messenger scam.

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The more social media accounts you have, the more data companies collect. There’s an easy way to clean up your old posts from Twitter, Facebook, Imgur and more. Tap or click here for a tool that can automatically remove posts from more than 20 sites and apps.

Social media has come a long way since its beginnings, but not in a good way. Between misinformation, scammers, hackers, cyberbullying and invasive privacy practices, it’s easy to see why people are deleting themselves from social media.

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Before you sign up for a service or create a website account, there are usually pages and pages of terms of service, end-user license agreements and privacy policies to go through. Very few people take the time to read through it all. Tap or click here to quickly scan terms of service for the most data-hungry apps.

The terms and conditions are usually generic and while the language is different for each app or service, the overall message is the same. Interestingly, several websites and YouTube channels go over each painstaking line and explain it in layperson’s terms.

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It’s bad enough that social media risks your privacy and exposes you to false information. But you have to worry about scams, too.

Facebook has had more than its fair share of controversy and problems, but it’s also a prime target for crooks. You would think that COVID relief scams are a thing of the past, but they’re not. Tap or click here to protect yourself against Facebook scammers going after your money.

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Your social media information is more valuable than you think. Sure, criminals can cause a lot of harm if they get their hands on your credit card, but they can do much damage with your social media account. Tap or click here for 10 accounts more valuable to cybercriminals than your credit card.

Now, criminals are incorporating social media to spread new scams hoping to rip you off. If you receive a message from a friend, it might not actually be from a friend at all.

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Social media has come under fire for its invasive privacy practices. Among the biggest culprits is Meta, the parent company for Facebook and Instagram.

Facebook recently rolled out new privacy settings to keep you informed of how you’re being tracked while also giving you options to limit tracking. Some of those settings have been making their way to Instagram. Tap or click here to rein in Instagram’s hold on your data.

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