How Scammers Use Your Social Media Profile

In a living room, a giant smartphone stands upright like a doorway with its screen swung open as a door; family photos, a birthday cake and a dog spill out across the rug from inside it, while a shadowy figure peeks around the frame.

Most people use social media to stay connected with people they care about. Scammers use it for the same reason. In 2025, Americans reported losing $2.1 billion to scams that started on social media. That is eight times the figure from 2020[1][2], and accounted for more reported losses than all text and email scams put together.

In this module you will learn what scammers find when they look at your profile, how they use it, and two simple changes that make their job significantly harder.