What to know about fake Facebook accounts

Give away scams

Free iPad gift? Subscribe me! But wait – before you click that sweepstakes link, ask yourself if it looks real. In this banking scam, many fraudsters create fake gifts to trick users into sharing personal information such as a credit card number or clicking a link that can download a virus to their phones or computers. This fraud can also take place in the form of Instagram scams.

That said, there are legitimate sweepstakes, raffles and giveaways. “But there’s usually an end goal there,” says Velasquez. Most companies hope that the promise of a free iPad (or flight or jewelry) will entice you enough to, say, sign up for a newsletter or buy a product.

In these cases, before you give any personal information to a company, weigh the chances of winning against what you will lose once the company knows your email address or phone number. If the company does not store your information securely, hackers can access it and use it for fraud or sell it on the Dark Web. Here’s what you need to know about fake ads on social media.

Facebook Quiz Scams

Your friend just found out which ’80s pop star is their spirit animal, and now you can’t wait to find out yours. However, don’t let your curiosity get the better of you. Some Facebook quizzes will ask for access to your profile, and others will even go a step further by throwing trick questions into the quiz itself, says Adam Levin, founder of global identity protection and data risk services firm CyberScout and author of Swiped.

Questions like “What is your mother’s maiden name?” are “purely to gather information because … they can be the answers to security questions” to recover your password, he says. Once hackers have this information, they can use Facebook’s password recovery process to log into your Facebook account.

It is best to avoid these quizzes altogether. But if you do want to take a quiz on Facebook, stick to the sites you know and trust, and create fake answers for password reset questions so they’re hard to crack, Levin says. It may be easy enough for Facebook scammers to find out your mother’s maiden name, so instead leave an easy-to-remember lie. You might be surprised at what hackers can do with just your email address or phone number.

Cloned accounts

Be skeptical if you receive a friend request from someone who you could have sworn already had a Facebook page. Sure, some people like to clean house by ditching their old profiles, but other friend requests aren’t so innocent. Scammers will clone a person’s entire Facebook profile and create a fake profile of a real person.

From there, they can search the original user’s friend list and send their contacts a link to a get-rich-quick scheme or a cute quote. It’s the kind of thing you’d ignore from an anonymous email but not from a loyal friend. “They are counting on you to trust the message,” says Levin. The problem is that clicking that link can download malware to your computer.

Before accepting a strange friend request, shoot over a text or call the person to confirm it’s not a fake account. Learning how to hide your friends list on Facebook can also protect your contacts if you fall victim to this scam in the future.

Spoof attacks

Even if you haven’t received a new request, don’t immediately trust a message from a friend you can’t see face to face. Hackers can find a person’s password and hack into their account, then send fraudulent messages or posts to their friends asking them for money or other gifts. The messages are designed to tap into your emotions, causing you to panic and send the money without fully thinking it through.

In addition to using a friend’s profile to carry out a fraud attack, scammers can also impersonate well-known people or organizations. For example, there are dozens of accounts impersonating Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg who message users claiming they won money in a “Facebook lottery” and need to send gift cards to claim their winnings. Once they receive the gift cards, the fraudsters disappear.

Spam messages

With the “cloning” of social media profiles on the rise, it makes sense to be aware that it could happen to you too. But don’t automatically believe friends. The same exact message has reportedly been sent to numerous Facebook users, directly from another friend, but it’s a hoax: “Hi… I actually got another friend request from you yesterday… which I ignored so you may want to check your account. Hold your finger on the message until the forward button appears… then press forward and all the people you want to forward too… I had to do the people individually. Congratulations!”

While forwarding the message won’t spread malware, it does mean you’re unnecessarily littering the inboxes of everyone you know. Instead, search your own name for an identical account to yours, and ask friends if they’ve had any nasty requests from you. Report the fake profile if the alert is legitimate and ignore the message if there doesn’t appear to be a threat.

Fake coupon codes

Maintaining a store or restaurant’s fan page—or even keeping an eye on the ads—can be a great way to stay informed when there’s a sale or discount offer. (But if you don’t like them, find out how to turn off creepy Facebook ads.) If a post shows a promo code and it works, lucky you! You just saved some cash. But be skeptical if you have to provide personal information or create an account to unlock the savings. In some Facebook scams, a site pretends to be a real store but tries to convince you to share your email address (which can be used in phishing attacks) or other personal information such as your credit card number or SSN, which putting you at risk of identity. theft.

You can avoid these scams by doing your own research on the sale or ad. “Open a new browser tab and Google” the store’s official website, says Velasquez. “Go to the source and see what’s going on.” If there’s a genuine promotion, you can bet the store’s official website will let you know.