If you could get a penny for every new scam online, you’d be on your way to becoming rich.
If you got a penny for every person who has had their account hacked on Facebook, you’d be doubly rich. Not only do you have to contend with hackers hijacking your accounts or selling your information on the dark web, but now?
Hackers are skipping the attempts to infiltrate your accounts and are cloning Facebook accounts.
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Facebook app on a smartphone (Kurt “CyberGuy” Knutsson)
What is Facebook cloning?
Now hackers are using your photos, name and information to create new Facebook profiles. Once these fake duplicate profiles are created, they reach out to your friends and family to ask them to accept the friend request. Once accepted, they usually message friends and family for monetary assistance due to some bogus and urgent scenario.
What hackers commonly ask for with a cloned account:
- Money
- Additional personal information
- Password and login information
- Redirecting unsuspecting people to spam and scam websites
Yes, it seems unlikely that anyone would be duped so easily. Yet many people do get fooled. Most people also don’t hesitate to accept friend requests from people they think they already know. Due to their concern for their friend or family member, many rush in an effort to help someone they know with resources, access or information.
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What to do if your Facebook account has been cloned?
While not as complicated as having your Facebook account hacked, below are steps to take if your account has been cloned to minimize consequences.
1. Notify friends and family immediately that your account has been cloned and to not accept new friend requests from this account
2. Get as many friends and family to report the cloned account as possible.
Below are steps to take to report these cloned accounts:
- On the cloned account’s profile, click the three dots under the profile banner
Steps to take to report cloned accounts (Kurt “CyberGuy” Knutsson)
- Select ‘Report Profile’ in the drop-down menu
- Select ‘Fake account’ as the problem in the next drop-down menu
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Steps to take to report cloned accounts (Kurt “CyberGuy” Knutsson)
If you successfully reported the cloned profile, you should get a confirmation message showing the progress of the review of the account.
3. If your account is cloned, it doesn’t necessarily mean it is hacked. So, check your settings to determine if anyone has access to your account before taking more stringent measures. To take more specific steps to secure your Facebook account from being hacked, follow the steps in 5 ways to make your Facebook account bulletproof.
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How to prevent Facebook cloning?
While it is difficult to prevent someone from cloning your Facebook account, there are some steps you can take to make it more difficult.
1. First, you can check if this is already happening by entering your name in the search bar on Facebook. While there may be multiple users with the same name, cloned accounts are usually identifiable because they try to use your photo to dupe your friends and family.
2. Make your Friend List private so no one can access it. This will make it harder for people, even in your network, to know who to contact with these cloned accounts.
3. Change your privacy settings for photos, videos and information you post so people can’t use your photos and info to create profiles. Anything set to “public” is fair game to be used by these hackers to include in their cloned accounts.
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Kurt’s key takeaways
As long as social media exists, there will be bad actors working every possible angle to take advantage of people and their networks. Aside from following best practices in keeping your accounts secure, it is now important to keep your personal information and media private. With hackers now cloning Facebook accounts, you might not even know about such an account until a friend or family member alerts you. With clear communication with your social networks on Facebook and enlisting their support to report the fake account, you can take steps to secure your presence on Facebook. While there will inevitably be another scam on Facebook, we will keep you notified and on high alert so you can nip it in the bud.
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