Er. Bibhash Deva Nath
(bibhashdevnath@gmail.com)
Within a decade, social media (Facebook, Twitter,WhatsApp, Instagram, etc.) and other digital platforms have revolutionized the way people communicate and connect with others globally, allowing individuals to create and maintain a virtual persona. However, the revolution has also enabled many to adopt a fake persona, projecting an exaggerated and sometimes false version of themselves. With the rise of social media users and followers, there has also been a spike in people who build entire lives around their fake personas, from what they post to what they say to how they present themselves online.
It is no surprise that this new way of living has had a positive effect on many! From providing an alternate identity to hide behind to allowing people to live out their fantasies and desires as if they were real, social media has become a boon for fake personalities. It’s easy to build a convincing persona online, and social media offers anonymity that allows people to feel free to express themselves without feeling judged. It is important to understand that not everything we see on the internet is real, and deceptive personas can be created to cover up anything that someone doesn’t want to show.
Fraud cases on social media or the digital world as a whole are rising rapidly and becoming a major concern for users worldwide. With the increasing popularity of social media and other digital platforms, it has become a primary platform for criminals to target unsuspecting users. Fraudsters are taking advantage of the ease of access and widespread user information to execute a variety of scams. They use different strategies to gain the user’s trust and convince them to provide personal details or money. Some of the most common tactics include phishing, hacking, identity theft, and romance scams. Identity theft occurs when a fraudster impersonates a user to gain access to their accounts, where they can then send spam or steal personal information. Hacking leaves users vulnerable to malicious activity, giving the hacker access to user information, files, and credit card numbers. Phishing is a type of scam that attempts to acquire information by using deceptive emails or text messages. Love and romance scams are designed to take advantage of users looking for relationships by creating false relationships and then asking for money. Unfortunately, these scams are becoming more sophisticated and harder to detect, and they are an ever-growing concern that users should be aware of.
As per Experian’s 2022 Global Identity and Fraud Report, more than half of Indians felt vulnerable to online fraud over the past year. Almost one-third of Indian consumers have been victims of online fraud. It is also mentioned that the six APAC (Asia-Pacific) markets surveyed (India, Australia, China, Indonesia, Malaysia, and Singapore) indicate consumers in India and China appeared to be especially vulnerable, with 29% of consumers in each market having been the victims of online fraud. This statistic is slightly higher than global figures, where nearly 1 in 4 (23%) consumers have experienced similar incidents. India has the highest rate of fraud in these categories out of the six APAC markets surveyed.
The report found that Indian consumers are most vulnerable to fraud on social media sites and apps (38%), followed by payment system providers (30%) and online gaming platforms (30%). Consumers on these platforms also rank among the most susceptible to fraud throughout APAC. Indian consumers are highly vulnerable to suffering from online fraud on e-commerce marketplaces (29%), on online branded retailer sites (25%), and on streaming service platforms (25%). India has the highest rate of fraud in these categories out of the six APAC markets surveyed.
Moreover, identifying the real character of people in today’s virtual world (Facebook, Twitter, WhatsApp, Instagram, etc.) is not an easy task. Because here, people can masquerade as someone else or craft profiles that are perfectly polished to hide any weaknesses or flaws. In the real world, it’s much easier to tell who someone really is by other indications like body language, facial expressions, and physical mannerisms, but none of these things are present online. Most digital relationships happen through interactions between strangers, and it can be hard to build trust when we don’t even know where the person lives or if they have ever seen each other in person. Even in scenarios where digital relationships have progressed beyond talking to each other on the internet, the subtleties that denote true character can still be hard to identify. It is hard to get to know people intimately through text or video calls, as these are just two-dimensional optics and are unable to convey the subtle nuances of character. Instead, it takes real effort, conversation, and a strong relationship to truly understand someone’s character.
The current age of social media and internet connections has ushered in a new era of seeking fame and recognition, regardless of the cost. Unfortunately, some people, who may not have been born with the same opportunity or privilege as others, have resorted to adopting unscrupulous means to achieve their goal of fame and notoriety or to following people who are running after cheap popularity, a trend that has gone viral overnight. Sadly, as these individuals rise in popularity, there are those who choose to capitalise on this cheap popularity, such as those with no conscience of morality. These people see an opportunity to take advantage of someone striving to achieve fame, regardless of how it was acquired, and will do whatever it takes to bolster their newfound boost in publicity. They may offer financial incentives for people to engage with or otherwise promote the individual’s presence, or even worse, manipulate their followers by preying on their empathy in order to gain even more clout. For some, this attention is temporary, while for others, it can bring with it dire consequences, like a disastrous reputation or potential legal issues. To avoid falling into such a trap, it is important not to succumb to the allure of cheap popularity, as it will eventually fade and any bad decisions made in the process will be more difficult to undo.
We often get caught up in the virtual world of social media and forget to appreciate the real world. We get distracted by the things that we can see on the internet and forget to focus on the world around us. We get influenced by the opinions of others and lose sight of what’s important to us. It’s important to have a healthy relationship with the virtual world, but it’s even more important to have faith and belief in the real world. The real world is the one that we experience every day; it’s the world that we live in, and it’s the world that will affect us in the long run. It’s wiser to put more trust in real-world experiences than in virtual ones.
We need to prioritise our real-world actions, our conscience, relationships, and thoughts. We need to embrace our real-world situations and try to make positive changes in our lives. The virtual world can be fun and informative, but it can’t provide us with the same emotional connections and experiences that the real world can. We need to remember the power of our words, emotions, and actions in the real world, because these are the things that will stay with us long after we’ve logged out of our computers!