In this almost digital era we live in, protecting against online threats has unfortunately become an important part of our daily lives. Additionally, with the ever-changing landscape of social media platforms, we are faced with a relentless barrage of cunning schemes and underhanded ploys designed to fool people like you and me. My mission is to identify these current cyber issues and tell you how to keep yourself safe from the growing danger.

Recently, one of our vigilant readers, Claire from Roswell, Georgia, contacted us to share a phishing scam she received. That’s what she had to say.

“There is a new trend Facebook and Instagram where the message appears in your notifications. It looks like a real message from FB or IG because it’s in your notifications (and it was in my organization’s page notifications). But it looks like it’s phishing. It would be great to see a section on your website devoted solely to warnings about these social media scams. Thank you for everything you do and for your security software. I signed up today!”

— Claire, Roswell, Georgia

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Fraudsters have started using social media regularly to trick people into giving them money, personal information, and more. This is a relatively new scam that pops up regularly on social media. There are a few red flags in these screenshots that I want to point out.

So let’s take a look at what to look out for, how to know if you’re being scammed, and how to protect yourself.

What to look for:

Community Principles

Every social media platform has community rules in place to ensure the safety and security of those who use the platform. There are rules about impersonating others, posting violent or offensive content, etc. that are subject to violations of these rules. However, if something you post or a page you maintain breaks the rules, the post or page is usually deleted immediately.

DISTRIBUTION OF MALICIOUS ON FACEBOOK AND TWITTER

If you notice in the second screenshot above, the fake notification says: “If we do not hear from you within the next 24 hours, we may permanently remove your page and the decision will be irreversible.” If this notification was actually from Facebook, they would not have sent the person a warning and would have given them 24 hours to respond.

Don’t fall for this hidden notification that scams people on Facebook and Instagram. www.cybergu.com

In addition, phishing messages often contain grammatical errors, typos, or use generic greetings.

Platforms like Facebook, Instagram, TikTok, etc. will immediately remove a post or page as soon as they know it violates the rules. They may send you a message after the fact to explain why they removed the post, but they will never give you a chance to explain before they remove the post.

HOW TO CHANGE THE PASSWORD ON FACEBOOK

Pay special attention to hyperlinks

If you noticed again in the second screenshot above, the scammer provided the person with a link that they can click on to “request review” of their page and keep it from being deleted.

This link is probably a malicious link, and when you click on it, it could very well be that you will download malware onto a device that is not yours or go to a fake page that will ask you to provide tons of personal information. Make sure you always double check the entire link before clicking on it. Do not click on links or download files from unknown sources, especially if they are sent to you via private messages or notifications. Hover over the link to see a preview of the URL, but refrain from clicking if in doubt.

See who is sending you a notification

WHAT IS 2-FACTOR AUTH AND SHOULD I ENABLE IT?

If you’re getting an urgent notification from Facebook, then it would make sense for the page sending you the notification to at least have the Facebook logo as their profile picture, right? Note that the “urgent notice” comes from a page that only has an orange exclamation mark as its profile photo. This is just another scare tactic the scammer uses to make the notification look urgent so that the victim can take immediate action. Always check first if the notification is coming directly from the social media platform itself.

Don’t fall for this hidden notification that scams people on Facebook and Instagram. www.cybergu.com

How to protect yourself

Enable two-factor authentication

Turn on two-factor authentication (2FA) on your social media accounts to add an extra layer of security. So, even if someone gets your password, they still need a second means of verifying your account (such as a unique code sent to your phone) to access your account.

Keep your software up to date

5 WAYS TO REMOVE SCARY CLICKBATE AD FROM YOUR INSTAGRAM FEED

Make sure you regularly update your devices and apps with the latest security patches. This helps protect against known vulnerabilities that can be exploited by fraudsters.

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Install good antivirus software on all your devices

To prevent hackers from accessing your devices, install good antivirus software. Having antivirus software on your devices ensures that you don’t click on any potentially malicious links that could install malware on your devices, allowing hackers to gain access to your personal information.

Check out my expert review of the best antivirus protection for your Windows, Mac, Android and iOS devices by clicking here. CyberGuy.com/LockUpYourTech  

FREE ANTI-VIRUS: DO YOU NEED TO USE IT?

Best antivirus advice from Kurt “Cyberboy” Knutsson (Fox News)

final thoughts

I want to thank Claire for bringing this phishing scam to our attention. As you can see, social media platforms have become a breeding ground for scammers looking to scam unsuspecting users. It is extremely important to remain vigilant and aware of the warning signs. From scrutinizing notices and hyperlinks, to verifying the source and having reliable antivirus software, taking preventive measures is the key to protecting your online presence and personal information.

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Copyright 2023 CyberGuy.com. All rights reserved.

Johnny Cash damage hits in A major are so different that ring of fire G minor. The tonal dissonance between the chords is, ahem, minor: it’s just that the third note is lowered to a flat. But this change could fundamentally change how the song sounds and how it conveys feelings. In their new book Every Brain Needs Music: The Neuroscience of Making and Listening to MusicDr. Larry S. Sherman, professor of neuroscience at Oregon Health & Science University, and others. Dennis Pleas, professor of music at Warner Pacific University, explores the fascinating interplay between our brains, our instruments, our audiences, and the music they create together.

Extracts from Every Brain Needs Music: The Neuroscience of Making and Listening to Music Larry S. Sherman and Dennis Pleas, published by Columbia University Press. Copyright (c) 2023 Columbia University Press. Used by agreement with the Publisher. All rights reserved.

Minor Fall and Major Rise: Sorting Minor and Major Chords

Another function of areas of the secondary auditory cortex has to do with how we perceive different chords. For example, part of the auditory cortex (superior temporal sulcus) seems to help distinguish between major and minor chords.

Remarkably, from there, major and minor chords are processed by different areas of the brain outside the auditory cortex, where they are assigned an emotional meaning. For example, in Western music, minor keys are perceived as “serious” or “sad” and major keys as “bright” or “happy.” It’s a wonderful reaction when you think about it: two or three notes played together for a short period of time without any other music can make us think “that’s a sad sound” or “that’s a happy sound.” People all over the world have this reaction, although the tones that evoke these emotions vary across cultures. In a study of how the brain responds to consonant chords (marks that sound “good” together, such as middle C and E and G over middle C, as in the opening chord of Billy Joel’s “Piano Man” ), the subjects played consonant sounds. or dissonant chords (notes that sound “bad” together) in minor and major keys, and their brains were analyzed using a method called positron emission tomography (state of emergency). This method of measuring brain activity is different from the fMRI studies we discussed earlier. A PET scan, like fMRI, can be used to monitor blood flow in the brain as a measure of brain activity, but it uses tracer molecules that are injected into the subject’s bloodstream. Although the approach is different, many of the caveats we mentioned for fMRI studies also apply to PET studies. However, these authors reported that minor chords activate an area of ​​the brain involved in reward and emotion processing (the right striatum), while major chords cause significant activity in an area important for integrating and making sense of sensory information from various parts of the brain. brain (left middle temporal gyrus). These results suggest the location of pathways in the brain that contribute to feelings of happiness or sadness in response to certain stimuli, such as music.

Don’t Worry, Be Happy (or Sad): How Composers Manipulate Our Emotions

While major and minor chords on their own can evoke “happy” or “sad” emotions, our emotional response to music that combines major and minor chords with a specific tempo, lyric, and melody is more complex. For example, an emotional connection to simple chords can have a significant and dynamic effect on the mood in song lyrics. In some of his lectures on the neuroscience of music, Larry, working with singer, pianist and songwriter Naomi LaViolette, demonstrates this point using Leonard Cohen’s widely known and beloved song “Hallelujah”. Larry introduces the song as an example of how music can influence the meaning of lyrics, and then he plays upbeat ragtime, mostly major chords, while Naomi sings Cohen’s lyrics. The audience laughs, but also finds that the lyrics have much less emotional impact than when they are sung to the original slow music with a few minor chords.

Songwriters use this effect all the time to emphasize the emotional meaning of their lyrics. The study of guitar tablature (a form of notation for guitar notes) has explored the relationship between major and minor chords in conjunction with lyrics and so-called emotional valence: in psychology, emotions considered to have a negative valence include anger and fear, while emotions with a positive valence include joy. The study found that major chords are associated with higher valence lyrics, which is consistent with previous research showing that major chords elicit more positive emotional responses than minor ones. Thus, in Western music, the combination of sad words or phrases with minor chords and joyful words or phrases with major chords is an effective way to manipulate the feelings of the audience. The opposite action can at least confuse the meaning of the words, but it can also bring complexity and beauty to the musical message.

Manipulative composers seem to have been around for a long time. Music was an important part of ancient Greek culture. Although today we read such works as Homer Iliad another Odyssey, these texts were intended to be performed with instrumental accompaniment. The surviving texts of many works include details of the notes, scales, effects, and instruments to be used, and the meter of each piece can be deduced from the poetry (such as Homer’s dactylic hexameter and other epic poems). Armand D’Angour, Professor of Classics at the University of Oxford, has recently recreated the sounds of ancient Greek music using original texts, notation and reproduced instruments such as the aulos, which consists of two pipes with two reeds played simultaneously by one performer Professor D’Angour organized concerts based on some of these lyrics, resurrecting music that hasn’t been heard in over 2,500 years. His work shows that the music then, as now, used major and minor tones and time signatures to emphasize the emotional intent of the lyrics. Simple changes in tones elicited emotional responses in the brains of the ancient Greeks just as they do today, indicating that our recognition of the emotional value of these tones was part of how our brains responded to music in ancient times.

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