NightTrain
01-17-2016, 06:38 AM
Yesterday my Mom called me up from AZ asking for help - "My computer is sending out Friend Requests on Facebook!".
Her assumption was that her laptop was infected, even though I set it up for her before she left and should be bulletproof.
I checked my FB, and sure enough, there was a friend request from her. But this was a new page, with her profile picture and everything, with a few confused family members already "re-friended" on this new page and wondering what was going on.
I announced on the new page that this was a scam, and then reported the fake account to Facebook. Impressively, Facebook nuked the account within 5 minutes - problem solved. The scammer got caught within 45 minutes of launching this malicious expedition.
The endgame, of course, is to pose as someone you know and trust, and then send you malicious links or files to infect your computer - along with everyone else in that circle of friends & family.
So, if you suddenly get a Friend Request from someone you're already friends with, take a minute to go look at the page and see if it's a brand-new version of your friend's page. Report it right away to Facebook and make an announcement that your friend is being impersonated and NOT to accept the bogus new request.
Additionally, of course, never click on a link or file that comes out of the blue from someone that seems out of the ordinary.
If you check your friend's list and see two accounts that appear to be duplicates, one of them is bogus - figure out which one it is and act on it. It's up to the computer savvy people in any circle of friends to watch out for the rest that are being targeted by the scumbags of this world, of which there are many.
I've noticed in the last few months that the majority of scammers targeting Americans are doing so from Pakistan & India. Nigeria has fallen off the radar, probably due to their recent muzzie problem - getting shot at by AKs while scamming from the Cyber Cafe is pretty distracting, I'd imagine.
Her assumption was that her laptop was infected, even though I set it up for her before she left and should be bulletproof.
I checked my FB, and sure enough, there was a friend request from her. But this was a new page, with her profile picture and everything, with a few confused family members already "re-friended" on this new page and wondering what was going on.
I announced on the new page that this was a scam, and then reported the fake account to Facebook. Impressively, Facebook nuked the account within 5 minutes - problem solved. The scammer got caught within 45 minutes of launching this malicious expedition.
The endgame, of course, is to pose as someone you know and trust, and then send you malicious links or files to infect your computer - along with everyone else in that circle of friends & family.
So, if you suddenly get a Friend Request from someone you're already friends with, take a minute to go look at the page and see if it's a brand-new version of your friend's page. Report it right away to Facebook and make an announcement that your friend is being impersonated and NOT to accept the bogus new request.
Additionally, of course, never click on a link or file that comes out of the blue from someone that seems out of the ordinary.
If you check your friend's list and see two accounts that appear to be duplicates, one of them is bogus - figure out which one it is and act on it. It's up to the computer savvy people in any circle of friends to watch out for the rest that are being targeted by the scumbags of this world, of which there are many.
I've noticed in the last few months that the majority of scammers targeting Americans are doing so from Pakistan & India. Nigeria has fallen off the radar, probably due to their recent muzzie problem - getting shot at by AKs while scamming from the Cyber Cafe is pretty distracting, I'd imagine.