Online Threat Alerts (OTA) - Alerting you to scams and frauds.

Warning! Do Not Accept Friend Requests From Strangers on Facebook
Warning! Do Not Accept Friend Requests From Strangers on Facebook

Never be too quick to accept friend requests on Facebook. This is because there are cybercriminals who are tricking Facebook users into accepting their friend requests. Once the Facebook users accept the requests, the cybercriminals will start profiling them, in the hope of getting enough information about the Facebook users that they can use to scam them. The cybercriminals may send malicious links to them that can download viruses, spyware, or ransomware, which can infect their computers or mobile devices. And, they may also send links that go to phishing websites that steal personal information, financial information, or online account usernames and passwords which the cybercriminals can use to hijack the accounts and use them fraudulently.

To protect against those cybercriminals, Facebook users should ensure the persons sending the requests or the friend requesters meet the following criteria:

  • They must know the persons sending the friend request; they should not accept friend requests from strangers.
  • The persons sending the friend requests must have a profile picture of themselves, so they can be identified.
  • The friend requesters must have a name and it should make sense.

If the persons sending the friend request do not meet the above-mentioned requirements, do not accept their friend requests.

There is a scam called Facebook Profile Cloning that cybercriminals are using to trick Facebook users into accepting their friend requests. This involves copying the names and photos of Facebook users and creating cloned accounts and sending friend requests from the same accounts to the Facebook users' friends. Therefore, Facebook users should never accept a second friend request from someone that is already their Facebook friend.

But, I have seen cases where Facebook users lose their accounts and create a second one and will send another request. In this case, ask the requesters questions only your friends would know the answers to, or just contact your friends via WhatsApp, email or telephone and ask them if they have actually sent the requests.

For more information about Facebook Profile Cloning, click here.

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