For cybercriminals, stealing your personal information and money through online scams has become big business.

The growth of social media use has resulted in even more scams, according to recent reports given to the Federal Trade Commission. More than one in four people who reported losing money to fraud in 2021 said it started on social media with an ad, a post or a message.

In 2021, more than 95,000 people reported about $770 million in losses to fraud from social media platforms. Those losses account for about 25% of all reported losses to fraud in 2021 and represent an eighteenfold increase over 2017 reported losses.

My guest today is Dr. Xiang Guo, assistant professor in the department of information technology and cybersecurity at Missouri State University. He sheds more light about online scams.

Read the full transcript for part 1

Read the full transcript for part 2