Facebook Account Hacking/Scamming Strategies

Facebook Account Hacking/Scamming

Strategies

What not to do and what to do.

For convenience sake, the word "he" as used in this article represents the both genders.

Facebook account hacking has gone overboard, it's high time we put an end to this serious menace.

Here are the various Strategies these hackers/scammers are using:

1. Friend request: They will send you a friend request with a profile picture of someone who is already your Facebook friend. Before accepting the request, here's what not to do and what to do.

What not to do: 

1. Do not accept the request yet.
2. Do not be convinced because of the mutual friends you see because those mutual friends equally accepted the scammer's request ignorantly.

What to do:

1. Click on the account name to visit the page.
2. Scroll to see when the account was created and how many post is on the wall. if the account was created like few weeks or months, and you know that this name has been your friend on Facebook far longer than that then that account is most likely a scammer.

If there are only few post on the wall then you are most likely on a Scammers wall. 

3.  Go to the search bar on your wall and type in the account name, a list of names will appear, below each name, you will see the number of mutual friends, check for the one with the highest number of mutual friends, that is the real account.

4. Go back to the Scammers page, click "more" and click "find support or report profile."

click 'fake account' and click 'send'

On the next page that pops up, click 'report profile.'

Check the next box that pops up, click 'report.' and click 'done.'

B. Sms alert: you will receive a customized sms (bulksms) with Facebook as the sender, and a link or a login code asking you to click the link or login with the code.

What not to do:

Don't take any of the steps if you weren't the one that initiated the prompt, that is, you never tried to change your password or login to your Facebook account.

What to do:

Delete the message.

C. Facebook Messenger: you may receive a message like this from your Facebook friend, 

"Have you heard about the on going facebook promo rewarding facebook users different prizes through empowerment of the orphanage home."

That was the message I received from a school mate on my friend list and it turned out that it was a scammer that hacked her account.

If you ask the person for more details, he will tell you that he won 300k just like that. His intention is to convince you. When he has succeeded, he will ask you to click a link or do something else. 

What not to do:

Do not click the link or take any action he says. 

If you receive a message from your friend telling you they got a friend request from you or you suspect you are being impersonated on Facebook, quickly create a unique username from your profile settings or copy your account URL and make a public post on your page declaring your real URL and tell the public not to accept any friend request with your profile picture if the URL is different from the one on your page.

By Oluchi Sonia Okwenna (Queenideas)