The message is designed to be urgent, alarming, or intriguing to capture your attention. Out of the blue, you receive a message from this supposed friend, catching your attention due to your curiosity about reconnecting. Scammers either hijack an existing Facebook account or create a fale one that mimics the profile picture and information of one of your Facebook friends. Source: Federal Trade Commission How to get scammed on Facebook Messenger in 4 steps In 2022 alone, the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) reported that scams originating from social media platforms led to American citizens losing over $1.2 billion. It’s ugly, believe me.īut, perhaps the most notable reason for the popularity of social media scams, including those on Facebook Messenger, is their effectiveness. The scammers will then use social engineering tactics to phish, scam, manipulate, and deceive their targets. So a Facebook account that has been hacked could be used as an opportunity to establish trust by initiating contact and gradually building rapport. Many individuals have Facebook friends they may not have interacted with for a long time or may not even know that well, making them easy targets. One of the reasons scammers like Facebook Messenger is its wide-reaching network. Scammers often assume fake identities, either by creating look-alike Facebook profiles or by taking control of legitimate accounts (hijacking), enabling them to send phishing scam messages to the friends of their victims. What's even more alarming is that once hijackers have control over your Facebook account, they can use it to engage in phishing schemes and solicit money from your family, friends, and followers. And let’s be honest, most people use the same credentials for multiple sites, which can inadvertently expose them to greater security risks. Once these hackers gain control of someone's Facebook account, they can potentially use it as a launching pad to access other social media accounts, especially if the person uses the same passwords across different platforms. They use a number of methods to achieve this, like buying login credentials from the dark web, conducting phishing attacks, deploying malware, or exploiting weak passwords. We’ve written about Facebook account hijacking before, but as a refresher, it’s basically when hackers gain unauthorized access or seize control over someone's Facebook account. Shockingly, it's not just impersonators with fake accounts out there even seemingly genuine accounts like yours and your friends might fall into the clutches of cybercriminals. Sound familiar? But here's the kicker, fake accounts are just the tip of the iceberg. A peculiar friend request or a profile with only a couple of friends, no posts, and an air of suspicion. We’ve all encountered fake Facebook accounts at some point. When it comes to social media platforms like Facebook, scams take on a whole new dimension… for the worse. These days, scams are getting harder to spot and easier to fall for. Long gone are the easy-to-spot scams like the free trip giveaway or romance scams like the Nigerian prince that, for some reason, just can’t have a video call or come visit but can certainly steal your money. What, I didn’t win a free trip to the Bahamas? Really? And you’re not a Nigerian prince. What do I do if I fall for a Facebook Messenger scam?įriend or foe: Could you be chatting with a scammer on Facebook Messenger?.Facebook Messanger Scams to look out for.How to get scammed on Facebook Messenger in 4 steps.Friend or foe: Could you be chatting with a scammer on Facebook Messenger?. Facebook Messenger: Launching pad for scammers.
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