Every Tuesday we want to inform you of a new scam alert to avoid. This week involves a popular social media site – Pinterest.

Big time social media sites like Facebook, Twitter and Instagram have been grounds for scammers to exploit, and now Pinterest, another site growing in popularity, especially among females, is becoming a common scammer ground as well.

It all starts with an email from Pinterest. The email claims that your friend has shared a “pin” with you – the term the site uses for a digital scrapbook image. Since the email and link seem real, you will probably click on it.

Common scam pins are ones with celebrities and beauty photos, giveaway offers, infographics and before and after diet pictures.

However, when you click on the link, you are taken to a website selling fake products rather than the real website you were expecting. This site may contain malware that’s stealing your personal information.

The Better Business Bureau (BBB) offers these tips to keep your Pinterest account secure:

  • Report the pin if you spot spam
  • Change your password
  • Log out of your account when you aren’t using it
  • Watch where you log in – only login to Pinterest.com and the official mobile app
  • Be careful about linking your account to other social media
  • Check before you pin that the destination link corresponds with the info from the pin

At Darrell Castle & Associates, we do our best to keep our audience apprised of popular scams that could potentially affect people’s money.

People can fall victim to scams for a multitude of reasons and sometimes be completely defenseless.

However, here’s some advice – don’t take shortcuts (like scams) to get money.

If you’re a person who’s more vulnerable to fall for particular scams because of the promise of money, is it because you have bills you’re struggling to pay and you’re falling in debt?

If that’s the case, I’d like for you to consider a better option – filing for bankruptcy. It’s nothing to be afraid of and may be your best option for getting out of debt. With the right attitude, proper lifestyle changes and some patience, you can even come out of a bankruptcy better than you went into it financially.

It’ll take some work though and we have a 14-week program that will help you called “7 Steps to 720.” This program is free for our clients and it teaches you things the credit card companies don’t want you to know in regards to rebuilding your credit the right way.

Let us help you.

If this is you, contact us today, either online or by calling us at (901) 327-2100. One of our experienced Memphis bankruptcy attorneys will be happy to speak with you, free of charge.