When it comes to privacy, South Sudanese are less heed of it. And the growing cases of privacy invasion are both overwhelming and regrettable. For many, login into social media platforms like Facebook, is a leisure and having security merits in it at the entry point. Let’s say, you feel absolutely comfortable once login in which happen as “Just”. But being an unware of “Just” could lead to severe stress or trauma as some cases may turn to bullying or even much sinisterly things.
The tricksters, hackers or scammers have invaded the world of the South Sudanese on social media. An average of at least 50 or more South Sudanese loses their accounts to scammers, hackers or tricksters everyday. This is just by estimated statistic and complains raised everyday to close friends. There could however be more of such as cases.
First, the ‘hacker’ sends a victim a message using a pseudo account like “Give me your password to connect your account to payment service so that you are paid 7k for every post you post.” Without a second thought, the person gives out their details to the tricksters and everything is changed. They would never login again to that account. Their name is changed and their pictures are deleted after sometimes. The account usually bear a Whiteman’s name or some Asiatic person. This mostly takes place on Facebook which have the highest number of South Sudanese users.
In the case where the name is not changed and pictures not deleted, the trickster would message another person, usually a person that frequently chat with the victim and he or she becomes the next victim and so on. The criminals would then carry out their fishy business or go ahead to scam people. These criminals are said to be from West Africa (Nigeria) and Asia (India) by some cyber security sources in the internet.
Another way is by sending a link to the target. If the victim clicks the link in their inbox, then everything suddenly changes and they lose their login credentials.
In some instances, but rarely occurring, someone would fall a victim in real life. He or she would be tricked into some businesses that they are sent something or some form of business they would conduct together (They often exchange numbers on social media). But the victim is often asked for some small amount like 120, 000 SSP (roughly 200 dollars) as part of the business’s fulfilment procedure. From here, once they send the money to the scammer, they are no more. Their money is gone and the scammer’s number would never go through again. The scammers usually use banking transactions or mobile money transfer. Sometimes it comes in the name of love or relationship but this mostly happen with South Sudanese living abroad.
The scammers would trick money from the (victim) lover in the name of an emergency. Once the money is sent to rescue the person, the communication turn dark and it is lost forever. other tricks are also used by the criminal to deceive the naive South Sudanese
Some South Sudanese often recover their accounts whereas the rest would resolves into creating some new ones.
Facebook and other social media platforms, have good security features that can used to protect one’s account. They are under Security setting. For those who have known the way forward or protection against cyber invasion, they are safe and would enjoy the social media addiction forever without security threats.