Just Died in an Accident ABC News Scam on Social Media

On Facebook Messenger, scammers will send the " Just Died in an Accident" message to users as if a friend or family died in an accident, which might appear legitimate since it's coming from a friend. It’s kind of like a viral phishing scam or hack that aims to use friends’ accounts to take down accounts for friends of friends, friends of friends of friends, etc. If you click one of the scammy links in the message from your friend, a hacker or scammer might then inform all of your friends that you died in an accident, which would obviously frighten some of your family and friends who think it’s real.

If any users receive a message on Facebook Messenger that claims someone died in an accident and it has a link to an unknown website, I recommend never clicking the link. If you can contact your friend who had their account hacked by calling their phone number, that’s a good way to potentially help them get their account back. Visit facebook.com/hacked for instructions on how to do that.

The “Just Died in an Accident” Facebook Messenger message is just one example of a messaging phishing scam or hack. The messages don’t have to be about someone who potentially died. Instead, it could be something else entirely. All the scammers need to do is show a link that, once clicked, allows them to take over your account, and they will have succeeded in their goal of hacking.