How to Avoid Scammers on Facebook - BC Association of Community Response Networks

Facebook offers hours of entertainment and services: games, quizzes, videos, catching up with friends and shopping. But beware, some of those quizzes, videos and items for sale are bait to trick you into compromising your personal and financial information. Can you tell the difference between the fakes and the real ones?

In this fifth edition of our series on How to Use Facebook, we review a few basic ways to keep your account secure, how to recognize some common scams and point you in the direction of related resources to report and block fraudsters.

Facebook’s Help Center is a great place to start for useful tips for any topic or issue that may arise.

Safety Tips 101

In today’s world of artificial intelligence and deep fakes, the focus should not be on making your social media a popularity contest, but rather a thoughtfully curated list of followers or friends. The best way to ensure you don’t let a bot or criminal infect your fun is to follow a few basic safety guidelines:

Strong Passwords
Control Your Security Settings
Think Critically – Recognize Scams and Phishing

Use Privacy and Security Settings

Your Facebook account should contain only the information and images that you added and be accessible by invited, authorized persons.

For all online and social media accounts, privacy and security settings should be carefully considered and routinely monitored. Don’t use personal details to create passwords, like your birthday or address. Keep your passwords in a secure place offline.

Facebook’s help page Security Features and Tips is a great checklist to start with and includes tips on how to protect your password, safety practices for using shared devices and how to recognize and avoid some common scams.

Most online platforms are moving towards a mandatory two-factor authentication (2-FA) to help prevent unauthorized access. 2-FA gives you added security by asking you to verify your log-in to your account, sending a private access code to your email or phone. If you haven’t already set up 2-FA, it’s a good idea to do it.

Use account Settings & Privacy from your menu to customize your level of privacy for settings like:

2-FA
Make your account visible to the public or private
Approve friends / followers (require them to request access)
Preview and approve posts from other people before they appear on your timeline
Preview tagged posts before they are added to your page
Who is allowed to comment on your published content

How Recognize Scammers, Spoofers and Phishing

The number of scams through social media platforms is growing. Criminals use all sorts of tactics,hoping to trick people into giving away money or sensitive information. Whether it’s through a comment in a post, a direct message, or an email, the bad guys are always looking for ways to flatter or panic you into a fast action so you don’t notice the tell-tale signs.

Clicking on a scammer’s link can give them access to your personal information through your account, infect your device and in turn start spamming other people on your friends and followers list.

Learning how to recognize and avoid scams on Facebook will help you keep your account secure:

Facebook quiz scams – designed to ask you fun but revealing questions to hack your account
Fake shopping ads – links that take you to unsecure websites that install viruses on your device (look for verified badges)
People claiming to be a friend or relative in an emergency
Accounts that look like a friend you already know, requesting to friend you
People asking to friend you because you are so attractive – then send requests for money or links with malware
Private messages warning you of a problem with your account – urging immediate action with a link to click
Grammar and spelling mistakes and using a style of formal language not commonly practiced these days
People with little to no content in their profile or timeline

Spoofing is when someone creates a fake account to pretend to be someone or something you already know or recognize in order to deceive you into trusting them. They will connect with as many ‘friends’, groups and business pages as possible in a very short time. They use tactics like mentioning you in a friend’s post comments, sending you a friend request, direct message requesting to connect, or send links for products or videos via Messenger.

Often you find out someone has spoofed you through your friends alerting you to a new ‘friend request’ from you. Watch for the following signs when considering whether to accept a friend request or respond to a message:

People who you don’t know or famous people asking to connect
Single status, usually widowed or single parent
No profile photo – or a very recent photo
No history or real-looking content on their time-line – everything was created within the last few days or weeks

Phishing scams are direct messages or emails through Facebook Messenger or an email that looks like it’s from Facebook Security, trying to gain access to your account by sending you a cryptic message with a link:

“Is this you in this video? / Did you see this?” or similar type of message with a link
Offers gifts or threatens to delete or ban your account
Poses as an official company and asks you to verify your private information in response to a problem

If you use Facebook Marketplace to buy or sell items, scams can happen to both sellers and buyers. Take precautions and learn to recognize a scam on Marketplace with these tips on Phishing, Buyer Scams, Seller Scams and Listing Scams.

Report and Block Fraudsters

While it’s tempting to simply block and ignore a scammy message or profile, the harm scammers can cause is endless. If you notice a profile or page that’s pretending to be you or someone you know, notify the person targeted, then report and block that account. The more people who report and block scammers and spoofers, the harder it is for those criminals to target more vulnerable people.

Report a Facebook page or profile:

Go to the profile you want to report – this is possible to do even without accepting a friend request
Click on the menu icon […] to the right of the profile under the cover image
Click on Find support or report
Follow the instructions to report the situation

Block a Facebook page or profile:

Follow the same steps as Reporting
Click on Block
Confirm you wish to block the account

Has my Account Been Hacked?

Can a Facebook account be hacked? If you click on a scam link – yes! If you suspect this has happened to you, it’s important to take immediate action to re-secure your account by changing your password and setting up two-factor authentication if you haven’t already done so.

How to tell….

Any changes to your account email, birthday, name or password
Friend requests being sent to people you don’t know
Messages being sent that you didn’t write
Posts to your timeline that you didn’t create

Use Facebook’s guided help tool to recover your account and report the incident to Facebook right away. When you provide them with as much information as possible, they may be able to identify the individual responsible. Additionally, you may want to update other sensitive app passwords on a separate device to ensure nothing else is compromised. And finally, consider reaching out to local law enforcement and look into filing a report as hacking is a criminal offence in many jurisdictions.

Fake Technical Support

Through a phone call, email, or sponsored social media post, there are many fraudsters posing as Facebook’s technical support to help you fix a problem with your account. Before you panic, try to remember:

Facebook rarely contacts account holders via email, and almost never by phone.
If you have a problem with your account, you will receive a notification in your Facebook app and be able to troubleshoot it from your menu options under Managing Your Account.
Never respond directly to a concerning email or click on any links provided.
Do not give access to your account or computer to anyone who contacts you about security issues

For more information about different types of scams and fraud and how to protect yourself, read our blogs about:

Catch up on previous articles in our How to Use Facebook series if you’re not sure why Facebook is the most popular social media platform online, or learn to use mentions, tags and hashtags effectively.

Follow us @BC Community Response Networks to catch all the latest information and resource updates and share with your local community. We invite you to tag us in your posts so we can celebrate with you and share your events too.

And be sure to check our website regularly for all our event updates, resources and information on a wide-array of topics.

Facebook resources for safety and security in this article:

Facebook’s Help Center

Security Features and Tips

Avoiding Scams on Facebook

Hacked and Fake Accounts

Protect Yourself from Phishing

Recognize a Scam on Marketplace

Report and Block a Fake Facebook Account

Guided Help to Recover Your Account

Report a hacked account

Explore our website to learn more about BC CRN or connect with your local CRN for more information or resources.