Experts warn against tagging people on social media without their consent.
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In the context of an increasing number of digital frauds and cyber scams, digital media literacy is crucial, emphasised experts at a First Responder workshop held in the city by the CyberPeace Foundation, a non-profit that works to build resilience against cybercrimes.Noting that scamming is a social engineering technique in which the perpetrator uses emotional manipulation to take advantage of the victim, Anindita Mishra, a cybersafety campaigner, said that one needs to work on their psychology first to be a scam-buster.“When they appeal to you for one ‘like’ for a suffering child, claiming that Facebook will contribute one dollar for every like, they are data harvesting. This is a means for them to identify which is a true ID, fake ID or a bot, and target accordingly,” she said.While several factors, such as temptation, urgency, credibility, authority, shame, fear, and so on, facilitate digital scams, in the case of children, she said, the culprit is often peer pressure.Experts also warned against tagging people on social media without their consent.“A recent viral trend we witnessed was the saree challenge, where people were asked to tag 10 of their friends. The 10 soon became hundreds and thousands. This is the perfect opportunity for criminals to conduct ID sniffing and find details such as people's names and credentials. Tagging is a personal choice,” Ms. Mishra said.The event was held in partnership with Google Safety Engineering Centre India. Published - June 13, 2026 12:11 am IST
