Discord has plans to deal with the latest waves of scams 

If you’re active on the popular messaging app Discord, you might have noticed a troubling trend. Discord scams are on the rise. They have become more sophisticated over time, and scammers try to make money off people concerned about photos or information being stolen online. Polygon reached the company to inquire about its plans for dealing with the scams.

Discord, a messaging application that caters to gamers and players of tabletop RPGs, is popular among younger people. A lot of the scams seem to focus on this younger demographic. These are the latest scams.

Sometimes an account appears to be from a mutual friend and will leave a message. This “friend” will contact the person and accuse them of sending private photos. The message is typically accompanied by a link inviting the person to a Discord server, where they are asked to “verify” their account by scanning a QR code. Scammers will be able to gain access by scanning the code.

These scams can be difficult to identify because the language doesn’t look out of place for the platform, and it touches on realistic anxieties. “Heyy idk what happened or if its really you but it was your name and the same avatar and you sent a girl — stuff like what the fuck,” reads a screenshot of a Discord scamOne user on Twitter shared. One Twitter user shared. This particular scam included an invitation to a server called “DISCORD SHAMING.” After the user joined the server, a bot prompted them to scan a QR code.

Some people are critical of those who succumb to the scam. Even though Discord has warned people about QR-related scams in recent months, this problem continues. Twitter is absolutely littered with people documenting the ones they’ve encountered, and one YouTuber made a video of the scam, with commenters mentioning they’ve fallen victim to it. Polygon was contacted by Discord via email to learn that they are working on new safety measures in order to stop unauthorized logins.

“Discord takes the safety of all users and communities very seriously. We are always working to make it harder for attacks like this to happen and continue to invest in education and tools to help protect our users,” a representative said.

These virtual scams have been around for a while. Anyone plagued with robocalls or random emails from fake people who “need your help” know this. Still, scams across all social media platforms sharply increased in 2021, according to the Federal Trade Commission, as life shifted toward a higher reliance on digital communications during the pandemic, and cryptocurrency-related scams sprung up. There is a wider picture that shows fraud on social media, including discord. This scam is especially dangerous for young audiences. Roblox and other online social networks like Discord are growing rapidly. This means that young people need to be more careful about how they interact with online content.

Discord offers advice on how to avoid scams. Some of it is pretty basic: Don’t accept friend invites from people you don’t know. Don’t accept server invitations from people you don’t know and don’t click a link to a server you don’t know. Don’t ever scan a QR code from someone you don’t know, since it can give a malicious actor access to your account and personal information tied to it. You can read it all here, and you should, because odds are you’ve bumped into a scam of some sort. Keep yourself safe, and help others!