Scammers take over your social media, email, and financial accounts to drain you and your networks (like friends, followers, or contacts) of money. Being vigilant about your accounts is one way to protect yourself. Otherwise, using unique, strong passwords, such as those generated by password generators, is the best approach.
There are certain bets that should never be made. Among them: Betting that your online accounts won’t get compromised.
This isn’t just hypothetical; it’s the latest odds. In 2024, the Pew Research Institute noted that one in three U.S. adults reported their accounts had been hacked, and sources note year in and out that the numbers keep rising.
More than a mere annoyance, such account takeovers (sometimes also called ATOs or ACTs) led to $15.6 billion in losses in 2024. So, unless you’re feeling lucky (as in beat-the-odds-with-zero-sum-risk lucky), it’s time to learn how to protect yourself.
How scammers take over accounts
Before scammers can take over your social media, bank, or email accounts, they need the keys to do so. In the digital age, that means they need your login credentials.
Unfortunately, because we tend to reuse our username-password pairings, one leaked set can lead to massive problems.
A cyberattack called credential stuffing is often to blame. Essentially, scammers test the same set of credentials across a slew of apps and sites to see where they get in. Thanks to a mix of bots, automation, and emerging tech, testing these keys happens at hyper-speed and can yield a bountiful harvest.
In other cases, scammers send phishing messages or use spoofing to trick victims into handing over credentials. Still other times, they might buy the credentials from other criminals.
The goal of an account takeover
Believe it or not, most scammers aren’t out to cause chaos. They’re out to make money.
Taking over your social media, bank, or email accounts is simply a way to get there. They use your access to move money, request payments, or trick others into sending funds.
The trust behind it all—your friends trusting your messages, or you trusting the systems you use every day—is what ends up collateral damage.
Your social networks
Scammers make money through account takeovers by using your networks to solicit money. These networks might be your friends on Facebook, followers on Instagram, or contacts on LinkedIn. Or they might be anyone in your email address book.
Once they have access to your networks, they will try any number of frauds: impersonating you and sending phishing DMs or emails that use elaborate stories that trick recipients into paying them. (Your contacts would be inclined to do so because they think they are helping you or a worthy cause you endorse.)
Or scammers might use your credentials to publish fake posts wherein “you” promote a bogus fundraiser, offer, or sweepstakes.
If these scams sound far-fetched, consider this: More than 35 percent of people in the U.S. said that their social media accounts had been taken over at some point in 2025. That figure made social media account takeovers the most commonly reported form of identity theft for the year.
The appeal is practical: When a scammer impersonates you within your networks, they reap the benefit of the trust your contacts have in you. And they take advantage of the false sense of security we all have in what feels like personal communication.
Your financial accounts, credit, and direct deposit
Scammers can do a lot with access to your financial accounts, which can include:
Checking and savings accounts
Credit card accounts
Investment accounts
Retirement accounts
Digital wallets
Payroll accounts
They might drain your accounts or milk them slowly to avoid attracting your immediate attention.
They might redirect your direct deposit. They might get loans in your name. The possibilities are ever evolving.
Your personal information
When a scammer takes over an account, they can farm it for your personally identifiable information (PII).
Such information, from your driver’s license number to your Social Security number, date of birth, and beyond, amounts to gold for a con artist who will use it for their own financial gain or sell it to other criminals.
How to prevent an accounts from being taken over
Protecting your accounts from takeover requires vigilance. It starts with password protection, including:
Use strong, unique usernames and passwords—like those generated by a password manager (like the one in select Allstate Identity Protection plans)
Creating new login credentials for each site or app that requires a sign-in
Using a VPN instead of relying on public Wi-Fi
Changing your login credentials annually (or as otherwise needed)
Beyond protecting your login credentials, vigilance extends to:
Monitoring your accounts regularly. Do you recognize the charges and withdrawals? Are there outgoing messages you never sent? Posts you didn’t publish? Are friends telling you they got a strange message from you? Is the address and contact information listed in your account settings correct?
Setting limits and alerts for withdrawals and purchases. This makes your credit and cash harder to drain outright.
Using bookmarked sites (or apps) to sign in. Instead of clicking links or search results, or typing in URLs yourself each time, use these to help ensure you enter your credentials in the correct place rather than on a spoofed or phishing site.
Keeping private. Don’t give your credentials to anyone who calls, texts, emails, or otherwise asks for them, even if the communication seems official. Disengage and contact the person or the entity separately, on your own.
Enacting a credit freeze. Putting a freeze on your credit report shuts the door on scammers who try to get credit in your name. You can reverse (“unfreeze”) and re-enact this as needed.
Following best practices for online safety. Knowing the signs of an online scam helps.
What to do if an account gets taken over
If you still have access to the accounts, change your login credentials using the previously mentioned guidelines. If you used the same password elsewhere, change it there, too.
After that, put a freeze on your credit report. And lastly, sound the alarm:
Contact the social network company, email provider, or financial institution involved and let them know about the account takeover
File a report with the FBI’s Internet Crime Complaint Center
Report the takeover on the Federal Trade Commission’s (FTC) IdentityTheft.gov site
If you can’t log into the account in question, contact the company, explain what happened, and ask them how to restore it. As always, if you’re an Allstate Identity Protection member, you can reach out to us. We’re here to help guide you through next steps.