YOUNG VOICES MEDIA PROJECT |
By Isaac González-Díaz
Renante Evangelista was waiting for a package last year when he got a text message saying he needed to pay for said package to be delivered. Evangelista, a 19-year-old Hartnell College student, clicked the link in the message and gave his credit card information and other requested details: email and password, among others.
“I filled out those spaces giving them my debit account linked to my student account and immediately I got a notification from my bank on my phone asking me if I did a purchase on a certain link,” Evangelista said.“I clicked ‘yes,’ and hours later my account was in zeroes.”
Evangelista, who is majoring in Film Television and Electronic Media, did not just fall victim to a hacking scam after clicking on that suspicious link. His email address was connected to his social media account, which was also hacked. Subsequently, the hacker impersonated Evangelista and asked his friends for money.
“I tried to connect to Instagram but once I entered it logged me out, and I tried to log in but it kept me out. I received a notification that my email was removed and my password was changed. At the same time, all my friends were texting me, asking if I was requesting money through links and I said no. I realized that I was being hacked.”
According to a 2023 study by the Pew Research Center, 26% of people in the United States had fraudulent charges on their debit or credit card during the prior 12 months. Another 11% reported that someone took over their email or social media accounts without their permission. And another 7% said someone attempted to open a line of credit or apply for a loan using their name. In total, 34% of Americans faced at least one of these three issues in 2023.
I also was a victim of hacking. It all began when I clicked on a suspicious link on Instagram, where the hacker obtained my username and password and, using my identity, started texting my friends offering fake checks in exchange for doing paintings of them.
Curious to find out if there were others who had suffered similar experiences, I conducted a mini-survey among my peers at Hartnell College. I wanted to know if anyone else was hacked, how students think that companies might improve security on social media, and how they can, as users, protect themselves on social media.
Ten Hartnell students responded. Six reported that their favorite social media app was TikTok, four said Instagram, and one reported that their favorite social media site was LinkedIn.
Eight have never been hacked, one was hacked through a text message and one student said that there was an attempt to access his account, but fortunately has never been successfully hacked. Their responses reflected those reported by the Pew survey.
The students were also asked how social media companies might improve safety on their networks and what actions users can take to protect their private information.
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Evangelista believes that social media education could go a long way. He recommends “a mandatory course to all users about the different dangers of social media, to prevent hacks and what to do in case of being hacked,” he said. “Don’t click on suspicious links and try to figure out if the link that you are going to click is the official link or not. In case it is not, delete it immediately.”
Abbey Thompson, a 22-year-old psychology student, believes social media companies could do more to verify people’s identities.
She suggests age verification for users, “and then maybe prevent links, because a lot of people get hacked by clicking the links that they get sent,” she said.
Adamary Ramirez, a 19-year-old sociology student, said that social media should not be regulated or censored by the government. It should be more up to the individual to “have a strong password and not sharing information with anyone,” she said.
Last March, a hacker tried to access the account of Alejandro Duarte-López, a 20-year-old criminology student. He also found out somebody was trying to impersonate him, but was not successful in fooling his friends. He recommends curiosity as a tool of defense. If you see anything suspicious, always question it, he said. “Be curious, who is this person? Why are they doing this? Where is it coming from?”
But Horacio Flores Mora, a 20-year-old plant science student, gives the opposite advice: Don’t be too curious. ”Curiosity creates a lot of problems, and if I go around different websites or clicking on different links, you know, I’m going to be in trouble.” He recommends staying inside known “safe spaces,” where “you should be good.”
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