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Let me set the scene - one morning I had a friend request from a friend I've known, both online and in real life, for many years. I'll just call her Friend. I was puzzled, as we've been Facebook friends from the day we joined Facebook, but she was using the profile picture I knew so well and we had quite a few mutual friends. All became clear to me - or so I thought - when she messaged me to say she'd had to open a new account because of problems with the old one.
Here's how the conversation went:
Friend
Hello how are you doing today, sorry for resending you
friend request, i got a trojan virus on the other account so thats why i opened
new one and re add you. i was just wondering if you have heard about the
compensation promo going on now??
Compensation promo? No, I don't know anything about it,
never heard of it. Who's giving compensation?
PS wondered why you'd opened a new account!
United nation and Government Grants just came up with a new
program for the deaf ,hard of hearing ,disable,blind and hearing people through
out the whole universe...Have you heard about this before??
No,are you sure it isn't spam?
nope this is not spam ok
I've not heard anything about it, but I don't fall into any
of those categories.... yet!
Friend
United nation and Government Grants are helping every
deaf,hard of hearing,disable,blind and hearing through out his campaign, they
are giving everyone of us that work or not working a grant from £150,000 upward
to help us all and i have just
gotten mine right in my door step. Have you got yours from him yet???
OMG I've just realised you aren't Friend at all, you
are a spammer and hoaxer pretending to be her!
At this point "Friend" became highly abusive, having had their scam exposed, and I ended the conversation. If the conversation had continued, I would have been asked to send some kind of release fee to authorise the money to be delivered to me - money which, of course never existed.
So how did "Friend" make me think they were real? By cloning a genuine friend's account, then by sending friend requests to all her friends at once, knowing that lots of people would see the familiar photo and accept without question. That meant that by the time I logged in, lots of our mutual friends were already associated with the new profile.
I started to smell a rat quite early in the conversation, as the spelling and grammar were not the same as my real friend uses, but at first I thought she was just upset at having had to start her account all over again - and I felt sorry for her which made me less cautious than I might have been.
There are all kinds of scams based on fake friend requests - have a look at this example from Hoax Slayer, where Facebook is allegedly giving away lump sums of $50,000. I've also heard of scams where the friend claims to be stranded on holiday after a robbery and needs money to help them get home.
What can you do to avoid being caught up in them? Every time you get a friend request from somebody you DON'T know, take a look at their page. See who your mutual friends are - you will be able to see these even if the profile is private - and message them to ask if they know the person personally. If you get a friend request from somebody you DO know, message them by email if you know their email address, or on Facebook USING A LINK THAT YOU ARE CERTAIN GOES TO THEIR OLD PROFILE (for instance, as a reply to an old message you have not deleted) to ask if the request is genuine. Only this week I almost turned down a request from a comping friend, only to check and find that she was setting up a comping only account because her activities were annoying her family!
Post script: Just as I was finishing writing this, I had a friend request and a rather odd personal message from somebody I'd not heard of. I looked at their profile page and saw that their status updates were identical to those of somebody else who sent me a request earlier in the week. I don't know what they are up to..... and I'm not planning to loiter around them for long enough to find out!
From Sylvia Robbins
ReplyDeleteJane, Thank you for this. I've read every word and it's good to be reminded to be vigilant.
I only once became friends with someone who obviously wished she hadn't sent me a request as I noticed after a few weeks that I had been struck off her list! I hadn't known her from 'anywhere' yet with another friend that I didn't previously know We had an instant rapport. I'd had a snoop on her timeline first before accepting and liked what I saw. And still do.
I'm receiving daily calls from the 'Windows' scammers just now. To one I replied I know you're a scammer and he laughed and said yes I want your bank details so I can steal all your money. That was funny.
Bye for now.,
Sylvia x
I've never come across a scam caller with a sense of humour before, I think you were lucky with that one Sylvia!
Delete.......And then I fell for this morning's scam.
DeleteI thought you must have reached 1,000 friends and the counter was reset to 0 and YOU were playing a prank.
Bye for now
Sylvia x
Glad you saw through this 'person' and thanks for spreading the word! I have only got 12 friends on Facebook (you being one of them) and I accept no friend requests! I prefer to have few friends whom I have gotten to know and trust over the years than lots of I don't know at all! I have learned from experience and am very very careful on here now - the internet is a fascinating place but also scary too!
ReplyDeleteIt's horrible to feel that you have to be looking over your shoulder all the time isn't it? I've met lots of wonderful people through getting to know them online, but there are a lot out there who are anything BUT wonderful!
DeleteAbout 2 years ago, I received a DM on Facebook from someone claiming to be from Littlewoods Direct. They told me I had been one of their lucky account holders who had won £100 and this would be credited to my Littlewoods Account. At first I remember thinking 'how strange - I don't have an account with Littlewoods Direct?' but being gullible back then, I replied back to them and told them I was thrilled! They then asked me to send them my mobile so they could get a colleague to call me direct so I did - and an hour later someone called me and asked me for my address and account details. It wasn't until then that I sussed all was not right - when I told the bloke I didn't have an account, he told me not to worry as he would set one up for me using my details. Well I wasn't going to give anyone my details over the phone so I told him to call me back the next day because I wanted to check a few things out first before opening an account. Anyway, to cut a long story short, I rang Littlewoods Direct and asked them about the competition and they told me that a few people had rang them with the same query and they were now looking into it. Then the next day the real Littlewoods Direct got back to me saying a scam company had set up a fake Facebook Page and were trying to con people into giving their Littlewoods Direct Account details over to them, along with their address etc so they could attempt to run up huge bills in their name! I was so pleased I had not given these scammers any of my details and since then I am so careful even with handing over any details to companies who have informed me I have won with them!
ReplyDeleteI hope anyone reading this takes notice as it is so easy to fall for a scam - Scammer use all sorts of ways of making you think you can trust them - just always be on your guard, and if you aren't sure then check up on the company's background!
That was a very sneaky scan - very often they try to lure you in with huge amounts of money so you are immediately suspicious, but when it's £100 you are much more likely to believe them.
DeleteYes - I think I would have handed over my details Jane, if I had already a Littlewoods Account. But it was the fact they assumed I had when I hadn't that raised my suspicions! You have got to be so on the ball!
Delete