topic Re: New Facebook Warning in Community Chat

New Facebook Warning

LilacTree — Sun, 27 Mar 2016 20:36:35 GMT

My niece sent me this, a new Facebook warning. I may completely delete my FB if this is the next big issue. Facebook should have ways of preventing this. I complied with this on my FB page.

Almost all Facebook accounts are being hacked. The profile picture and your name are lifted and used to create a new Facebook account - appearing to be you. Your friends think it's you and accept. From this moment, the pirates can write what they want under your name, and harvest your duped friends info! I want you to know I have no plans to open a new account, so please do not agree to a 2nd invitation from me!! Copy this message on your wall so that all your friends will be warned!

❣Do not share - copy and paste

Re: New Facebook Warning

SydneyH — Sun, 27 Mar 2016 20:39:46 GMT

This is only partially true..........

http://www.snopes.com/computer/facebook/pirates.asp

Re: New Facebook Warning

sunshine45 — Sun, 27 Mar 2016 20:42:24 GMT

Facebook cloning is not a "new scam," nor is there any evidence that its occurrence has increased greatly in recent days. (It also isn't a "hack," as the scam requires no special privileges nor breaking in to any Facebook accounts to accomplish.)

In general, Facebook users should always be cautious with friend requests: attempt to verify their validity before accepting them, be wary of additional requests from persons you have already befriended, and take care about what information you share with friends on Facebook.

http://www.snopes.com/computer/facebook/pirates.asp

Re: New Facebook Warning

LilacTree — Sun, 27 Mar 2016 20:43:38 GMT

@SydneyH wrote:
This is only partially true..........

http://www.snopes.com/computer/facebook/pirates.asp

Good to know. However, I'll leave the warning on my FB page, as I've never heard this before.

Re: New Facebook Warning

SydneyH — Sun, 27 Mar 2016 20:47:42 GMT

Agreed, Sunshine, none of this is new. Hackers have always had the ability to clone and my friends would want to know why the need for a 2nd friend request if they still have the first imo.

Re: New Facebook Warning

Moonchilde — Sun, 27 Mar 2016 20:55:39 GMT

If your name is Jane Smith (for example) and you want to have a FB account under your own, real name, FB is not (and should not) going to prevent 1000+ Jane Smiths from having FB pages. Likewise, they can't prevent people from using the same photos - there are literally millions of members, some of whom change their avatars multiple times per week.

FB wants people to be able to find people. That's what they are about. If they hid the names of peoples' friends, half of their purpose would be rendered impossible.

FB is what it is. It gives people plenty of tools to use, and assumes they will not only use them, but be internet savvy and cautious. They can't be in the business of holding every member's hand. Those unable to navigate FB should, indeed, quit it. No one *has* to belong.

BTW - those who do pirate IDs nearly always look for the profiles of people who basically set up their FB page and then abandon it/rarely or never use it. There are so mamy people who do this that pirates have little need to use the IDs of active users.

Re: New Facebook Warning

Marp — Sun, 27 Mar 2016 21:17:12 GMT

IMO the biggest problem with FB privacy is "friends of friends". It would make me very happy to be able to have "friends" see things but not "friends of friends".

Re: New Facebook Warning

goldensrbest — Sun, 27 Mar 2016 21:47:30 GMT

There was someone i was friends with on fb,she was always being hacked,i got tired of it, i un-friend her.

Re: New Facebook Warning

chrystaltree — Sun, 27 Mar 2016 22:09:04 GMT

Oh, please. Let's use some common sense here. "All most all" is a gross exaggeration intended, I suppose the intent is to scare people. I have issues with FB but cloning is not one of them. I don't have a serious presence on FB but that hasn't stopped the proliferation of garbage and mish mash that makes it's way to my page.

Re: New Facebook Warning

151949 — Sun, 27 Mar 2016 22:52:35 GMT

This happened to me and the person opened a gofundme acct. then went on FB to ask all my friends to send money to the acct.Fortunately, instead our friends and family all called us to see what was going on esp. because it was while my DH was in the hospital with his stroke. It was nice to get to talk to almost everyone I know but I was happy to assure them all we were fine and it was a scam. I did immediately add a post telling everyone it was a scam and they shoulod ignore it. My nephew went onto gofundme and had the account closed immediately - there was no money in it.

Re: New Facebook Warning

Desertdi — Mon, 28 Mar 2016 01:00:34 GMT

@Marp wrote:
IMO the biggest problem with FB privacy is "friends of friends". It would make me very happy to be able to have "friends" see things but not "friends of friends".

Ohmigosh, yes! I've got some of those in Outer Mongolia. I don't even know anybody in Canada or Mexico..................

Re: New Facebook Warning

NYC Susan — Mon, 28 Mar 2016 03:00:20 GMT

@LilacTree wrote:
My niece sent me this, a new Facebook warning. I may completely delete my FB if this is the next big issue. Facebook should have ways of preventing this. I complied with this on my FB page.

Almost all Facebook accounts are being hacked. The profile picture and your name are lifted and used to create a new Facebook account - appearing to be you. Your friends think it's you and accept. From this moment, the pirates can write what they want under your name, and harvest your duped friends info! I want you to know I have no plans to open a new account, so please do not agree to a 2nd invitation from me!! Copy this message on your wall so that all your friends will be warned!

❣Do not share - copy and paste

This has been floating around for a long time, and it's ridiculous to believe that "almost all Facebook accounts have been hacked". That is absolutely 100% not true. Almost all? Really?? If that were the case, Facebook would have been gone a long time ago.

Some accounts have been hacked, yes. But overwhelmingly, not most. If people are diligent, there is far less chance. You really can't believe everything that you read. There are too many things out there designed to incite fear.

It all comes down to educating ourselves about what we use and what we do on the internet. Facebook is no less than safe than anything else, and the vast majority of people on Facebook have never been hacked and have never had any serious problems. Emails get hacked and hijacked and all of that too. Nothing on the internet is 100% safe, including posting here or paying online. (I've actually had my email hacked twice, but in the ten years I've been active on Facebook, I've never had one single problem.)

Don't believe everything you read! Do your own research! Just because someone posts something on the internet doesn't mean it's true. There is probably more misinformation floating around about Facebook than pretty much anything else.

Re: New Facebook Warning

NYC Susan — Mon, 28 Mar 2016 03:24:46 GMT

@SydneyH wrote:
Agreed, Sunshine, none of this is new. Hackers have always had the ability to clone and my friends would want to know why the
need for a 2nd friend request if they still have the first imo.

Exactly. I got a friend request from someone I was already friends with, so I asked her if she had set up a new account. She said she had, so all was well. But if she said she hadn't, I would have ignored the new friend request because I would have known it was not her. It's really pretty simple.

My FB friends are people I know. I'm not there to meet new people. My privacy settings are tight. I use "friends" when I post, never "friends of friends" and never "public". My friends list is not viewable to the public, and even my friends only see the friends that we share ("Mutual Friends") You can also post so that just a specific group of people can see it (your family, or college friends, whatever). Not even people on my friends list can see everything, and the public sees practically nothing.

If you're smart about it and use common sense, there really is little need to worry.

Re: New Facebook Warning

NYC Susan — Mon, 28 Mar 2016 03:30:49 GMT

@Moonchilde wrote:

FB wants people to be able to find people. That's what they are about. If they hid the names of peoples' friends, half of their purpose would be rendered impossible.

You can hide the names of your friends. That's a setting I chose a long time ago. The public sees no friends listed at all. (It says, "No Friends to Show"). That's the way I wanted it, and that's how it's been for years.

I also have my settings so that my friends only see the friends we have in common. No one can see my entire friends list except for me.

Re: New Facebook Warning

LilacTree — Mon, 28 Mar 2016 17:19:31 GMT

Sorry folks. Stupid of me to post that warning. I apologize. Please just ignore it.

Re: New Facebook Warning

NYC Susan — Mon, 28 Mar 2016 21:11:51 GMT

@LilacTree wrote:
Sorry folks. Stupid of me to post that warning. I apologize. Please just ignore it.

No, it wasn't stupid. Please don't think that way! If you have a concern, it's certainly okay to bring it up as a topic here. And it's a good thing to talk about. If you were concerned about that warning, then for sure lots of other people were too.

IMO opening something up for discussion is usually a very good thing to do! I hope that your mind is at ease about this now, and hopefully others got some good information here too. It's always a good idea to be dligent. :-)

Re: New Facebook Warning

LilacTree — Tue, 29 Mar 2016 15:00:41 GMT

@NYC Susan wrote:
@LilacTree wrote:
Sorry folks. Stupid of me to post that warning. I apologize. Please just ignore it.

No, it wasn't stupid. Please don't think that way! If you have a concern, it's certainly okay to bring it up as a topic here. And it's a good thing to talk about. If you were concerned about that warning, then for sure lots of other people were too.

IMO opening something up for discussion is usually a very good thing to do! I hope that your mind is at ease about this now, and hopefully others got some good information here too. It's always a good idea to be dligent. :-)

Thanks NYC Susan. I've always been somewhat naive. Guess aging hasn't cured that!

Re: New Facebook Warning

CouponQueen — Tue, 29 Mar 2016 15:26:34 GMT

I have found that a lot of the Facebook warnings that are circulating are not true. I find them on Snopes all the time. When I see a new one posted to me I debunk it with a snopes link.

Especially the one about the owner of Facebook giving his money away and if you copied and posted the post to your Facebook Page you would get some too..

I could not believe the number of people who you would think had a brain lol, posted it..

Re: New Facebook Warning

NYC Susan — Wed, 30 Mar 2016 01:46:28 GMT

@LilacTree wrote:
@NYC Susan wrote:
@LilacTree wrote:
Sorry folks. Stupid of me to post that warning. I apologize. Please just ignore it.

No, it wasn't stupid. Please don't think that way! If you have a concern, it's certainly okay to bring it up as a topic here. And it's a good thing to talk about. If you were concerned about that warning, then for sure lots of other people were too.

IMO opening something up for discussion is usually a very good thing to do! I hope that your mind is at ease about this now, and hopefully others got some good information here too. It's always a good idea to be dligent. :-)
Thanks NYC Susan. I've always been somewhat naive. Guess aging hasn't cured that!

The internet can be a scary place. I totally understand!