Another week, and another chain letter is doing the rounds on Facebook.
This time around users are sharing and sending a message alerting their friends to the fact that they have received a second friend request from them.
Users are sending the following message along to their friends.
“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!”
Firstly, checking your account is good advice whether this is a hoax or not. Regularly reviewing what apps are connected to Facebook, updating privacy settings and practicing good cybersecurity hygiene are things we should all be doing, regularly.
Account cloning or spoofing is something cybercriminals can do as form of social engineering. That having been said it’s a very public and visible way of social engineering and there are myriad other methods to glean information from potential targets.
As for forwarding this message to people, why? What good will forwarding this message on to friends who you have not received a secondary friend request from do?
Fact checkers at Snopes have addressed this chain message in a post this week stating that the message is false.
“While a warning of this nature could be legitimate, the fact that this exact same message has been spread to untold thousands of Facebook users indicates that it is at worst a scam or hoax, and at best a once well-intentioned warning rendered useless by being uncritically reposted all over Facebook,” writes Snopes.
The fact checking site recommends users that think their profile might have been cloned contact friends privately and ask if they’ve received a second friend request from you.
Should it be discovered that your account has been cloned, report the account. Facebook doesn’t monitor the messages you send or everything you post so the only way it will know about the account is if you report it.
[Image – CC 0 Pixabay]
