Facebook Warns of Viral HOAX Message That Claims Your Account Has Been ‘cloned’ by Cyber Criminals

Clones are different than hacks. Facebook hacks mean somebody has access to your account and any information or messages within it.

A Facebook official said: ‘We’ve heard that some people are seeing posts or messages about accounts being cloned on Facebook. It takes the form of a “chain mail” type of notice.

‘We haven’t seen an increase in incoming reports of impersonation (cloned accounts).

‘The volume of these types of posts isn’t a good measure for how often impersonation is actually happening.’

A typical message that you may have received reads as follows:

“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 hit forward and all the people you want to forward too… I had to do the people individually. Good Luck!”

What is Facebook Profile Cloning?

Facebook profile cloning is when someone creates an account and pretends to be you by stealing your photos and personal information. They then go a step further and send a friend request to your existing friends, to get more personal information from them, about you. Your friends accept the invite, as they genuinely believe it is you that is contacting them.

An easy way to check to see if your account has been cloned? Do a search of your name on Facebook and make sure there isn’t another one of you, with the same profile photo. If there is – be sure to flag it by using the ‘report’ feature.

What should you do if you receive one of these messages?

Do nothing. Just delete it and move on. Your friend will have forwarded it, thinking they’re helping, but it actually makes the problem worse as more people think their own account may be cloned.

Be sure to share this post to your Facebook wall, so your friends are aware of this.



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