How does Facebook identity theft work?

J

JBR

Senior Member
Location
Southern Canada mtn. valley, tad west of Rockies
Okay, I'm not a Facebooker. But recently a dear woman whom I know asked me if I know how this works.

It's true, I do collect a lot of info about certain things... but those are areas or things I'm personally involved with, or that simply interest me. I could not help my friend because Facebook is not an interest of mine.

The gist of what she was asking about is a phenomenon of Facebook (FB) identity theft. Some sort of hack, I suppose, where an FB member's identity is stolen (somehow) in order to impersonate the member. And then, I think, the thief of hacker contacts other members for whatever benefit the hacker hopes to get from them. Anyhow, it sounds dreadful.

So... has anybody here experienced this? and how does it work? I'd think that like countless internet membership sites, FB requires and password & other security safeguards. And are the FB employees doing anything about the scam?
 

Bard AI answers :

You're right to be concerned about your friend, and while I can't share personal experiences, I can offer some information about Facebook identity theft and what your friend can do:
What is Facebook Identity Theft?
It occurs when someone fraudulently takes on another person's identity on Facebook. They might do this by:
  • Creating a fake profile: This involves using the victim's name, photos, and other personal information to create a new account.
  • Hacking into an existing account: This involves gaining unauthorized access to a real person's Facebook account, often through phishing scams or malware.
How do they use stolen identities?
The thief might use the stolen identity for various malicious purposes, such as:
  • Scamming friends and family: They might contact the victim's friends and family, pretending to be the victim and asking for money or personal information.
  • Damaging the victim's reputation: They might post harmful or embarrassing content about the victim on their profile or elsewhere online.
  • Spreading misinformation: They might use the stolen identity to spread false information or propaganda.
Security Measures and Facebook's Role:
Facebook offers various security measures to protect users, including:
  • Two-factor authentication: This adds an extra layer of security by requiring a code from your phone or another device in addition to your password when logging in.
  • Privacy settings: Users can control who sees their information and who can contact them.
  • Reporting tools: Users can report suspicious activity to Facebook.
While Facebook takes steps to combat such scams, the responsibility also lies with individual users to be vigilant and practice safe online habits.
Here's what your friend can do:
  1. Report the fake profile: If your friend believes someone has created a fake profile impersonating them, they should report it to Facebook immediately. Facebook has a dedicated reporting process for this purpose.
  2. Secure their account:They should:
    • Change their password: Use a strong, unique password and enable two-factor authentication.
    • Review privacy settings: Limit who can see their information and who can contact them.
    • Beware of phishing scams: Be cautious of emails, messages, or links claiming to be from Facebook and asking for personal information.
    • Scan for malware: Run a scan with their antivirus software to check for malicious software that might have compromised their account.
If your friend feels their account has been hacked, they should also follow Facebook's specific instructions for account recovery. They can find these instructions in the Facebook Help Center: Facebook - log in or sign up
Remember, staying informed and practicing good online security habits can help protect yourself and your loved ones from such scams.

Sources​

info
  1. educationalpedia.com/cryptocurrency/cryptocurrency-hacking/
 
Like any scam, it is up to the individual to respond or act on something they see. I do use facebook to keep of with the family, but I don't post anything personal there. That is just asking for trouble. They are too many that think it is not a problem. They share their address, phone, when they are going out of town. The criminals are just out there, reading and researching who they can scam or tob.
 

Blessed said:
Like any scam, it is up to the individual to respond or act on something they see. I do use facebook to keep of with the family, but I don't post anything personal there. That is just asking for trouble. They are too many that think it is not a problem. They share their address, phone, when they are going out of town. The criminals are just out there, reading and researching who they can scam or tob.
Click to expand...
That sounds scary. I'd been hearing the occasional nasty rumor about FB. I guess a lot of damage has already occurred.
 
It is much more likely for a facebook account to be cloned than it is for the account to be hacked, and none of that AI information helps much when an account has been cloned.

To clone a person’s account, you just take a screenshot of their profile picture, and maybe some of the other pictures they have posted, and then you make a facebook account yourself , using the name of the person you are cloning the account, and you add their picture (from your screenshot), post a few irrelevant things into the account, so it looks real, and …BINGO… you have cloned their account.

So, why clone someone’s account ? This is where the scam part comes in. The next thing the scammer does is send friend requests to the cloned persons real friends.
Then he messages those friends (when they accept the new friend request) and tells them that he (you) just came into a large amount of money, usually through a grant of some kind, and he tells your friend that he can get that grant, too, and gives the friend information to “apply” for the grant. Since your friend thinks this is actually you, and someone he trusts, he may believe the fake story and try to apply for the grant, thus giving all of his information to the scammer.

Now…. Here is how you deal with this if it happens to you. First, go to your facebook account, say that you have been cloned and announce to your friends that your account was cloned, and NOT to accept a new friend request from you, and then you go to the cloned account and report it to facebook, and they will remove it.

The accounts they usually clone are people who have a lot of friends, because of a better chance of finding people to scam with the fake grant story.
If you change the settings on your facebook account so that your friend list is set to private, then the scammer can’t see who your friends are to scam them; so there is no reason for him to clone your account in the first place.

Changing your password and such does not do any good because no one has broken into your actual facebook account, they just used your picture and made a fake account that looks like you.
 
Happyflowerlady, wow how weird! It's an identity theft for sure. Cleverly devious, I guess, but you'd think anyone getting contacted this way, who isn't completely desperate, would split the scene immediately.

Given that I've received my share of email phishing-scam messages, which I dump at once, I can only imagine that FB scammers are occasionally successful in acquiring a chunk of cash here and there. Otherwise, no one would waste time taking the steps you've described to duplicate an identity.
 
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I learned about this when I received a friend request for a person we had been friends with for a long time. He ran a mission to feed people, so when he said he had received a large grant, I was not at all surprised; but when Chester started telling me that I could get a grant, too, it didn’t make any sense, because we have nothing to do with any kind of a charity .
I began to wonder if it was actually Chester, so I looked up the account I already had for him and messaged to see if he had written to us about some kind of a grant.
I found out that he had not done any such thing, but some of his other friends were reporting that they got the same message from Chester that I had.

I reported it to facebook and they deleted the scam account, and then I started researching how it worked, because Chester was worried that someone had hacked into his facebook account.
When it turned out to be as simple as using someone’s picture and making a clone account, I was shocked. Now, anytime I get a repeat friend request, I check to see if they still have the original, warn them about the cloned account, and report it to facebook.
 
@Happyflowerlady Thanks for this info. I wondered how they did it too. Most people say they were hacked. Your explanation makes more sense.

One of the things I’ve seen is some promoting someone’s wonderful site. The poster’s photo looked ordinary and seemed odd that they were posting links like that. I knew it was spam. There were so many on a huge site, it seemed a waste of time reporting it. Maybe I’ll start. A well-moderated site would be deleting these instantly.
 
I have only very carefully selected friends on there, my profile picture is not of me but a neutral artwork, I put no useful information on there at all, my security settings are on the highest levels. I am very private and careful, never put personal matters on there.

I'm afraid scammers have always played on human vulnerability and need for communication and validation. I give a potential scammer nothing and a very limited audience! Making yourself intentionally boring is a useful thing!

Some people don't understand about security or just choose not to use it. There are those who place popularity above all. There are those who have thousands of friends and happily publish their whole lives on there, plenty of useable photos of themselves. This provides rich pickings for passing scammers I suppose.
 
this sort of clone scamming as described above can be done on anyone's account - how many friends you have or what you post doesn't change that.
Ive had it happen to me and to Facebook friends of mine , it seems fairly common - once you know about it, the real people then post on their real Facebook page advising others not to accept friend requests from the scammer.
and report the scammer to Facebook

and of course if anyone sends you strange personal messages supposedly from your friend, check it out directly with the friend first and needless to say, do not send any money
 

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