What to Do When My Facebook Friendcsays That I Am Requesting to Be Her Friend Again

Filed Nether: Stay Safe Online

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Terminal updated on Jan 20th, 2022

This 2014 article has been updated with a newer commodity HERE.

Needless to say, there are enough of scams on Facebook. Whether its fake giveaways, like-farming pages, phishing attacks and spammy links, you lot only demand to scroll through your newsfeed for a few moments earlier y'all come beyond something suspicious.

A portion of these scams are initiated via a simple friend request. You login, and that crimson number appears over your Contacts icon at the top of your newsfeed.

Of course information technology could be a legitimate asking from someone you lot know wanting to exist a Facebook friend.

Or it could exist the starting time of any of these five scams….

five. Facebook Profile Cloning Scam

If the Facebook request comes from someone you lot know, and in fact are already friends with on Facebook, and then alarm bells should already exist ringing, because this could be a cloning scam.

Facebook profiling cloning scams (a.k.a. Friend Imposter scams) are surprisingly effective notwithstanding elementary to execute. A scammer searches for a Facebook profile with a friends list that is public to anyone. Near people do non make their friends listing private, then the scammer has plenty of profiles to cull from.

The scammer so copies both the profile name and contour picture of the account they selection – both of which are likewise public – and creates a brand new account with that information, thus creating a clone account. If the Facebook account targeted by the scammer has any other public photos, the scammer may well upload those photos to the new cloned account too.

From there the scammer sends friend requests to the friends of the account they cloned, in the hope a number of them will take the request under the thinking that it is the friend that has either created a new account of that they were accidentally deleted and being duly re-added.

Once an invitation has been accepted the scammer can now meet information on that account only intended for friends. Whatever number of scams can be carried out on the person who accepted the friend request, such as the "Friend in Crisis" scam, or any of the post-obit three scams on this list.

E'er verify friend requests earlier accepting, and make your friends list individual and then scammers don't selection your account and impersonate yous to your friends. More on Facebook cloning scams hither.

four. Malware linker

Most typically these friend requests will appear to come up from an bonny fellow member of the opposite sex, but the scam itself is rather rudimentary (unless combined with to a higher place Facebook cloning scam for a more personal bear upon) just essentially involve the scammer sending you lot an unsolicited friend asking and – if accepted – following that up by sending you links to malicious websites that will attempt to install malware onto your computer when visited.

Either that or you'll be sent to a survey scam, which harvest personal information by luring you into completing intrusive questionnaires.

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3. Phishing linker

Very much like the above malware linker, the stranger you lot merely accustomed (again often posing as a member of the reverse sexual activity – or again information technology may exist combined with the Facebook cloning scam) will send you links to spoof phishing websites.

Typically these sites will be designed to await like the Facebook login folio, asking for your Facebook username and countersign, which are then duly sent to the scammer, compromising your Facebook account.

Read more well-nigh Facebook phishing scams hither.

2. The "Looking for Beloved" Romancer

Finding honey on the Internet is increasingly common, and this fact is exploited by scammers who target the solitary and vulnerable. This scam can exist initiated on dating websites, through email, or on social media websites like Facebook.

Scammers locate profiles to target and send a friend asking. Upon the victim accepting the friend request, they are sent letters from the scammer who is attempting to strike a romantic human relationship online with the ultimate goal of gaining the trust of the victim.

Once that trust has been established, the scammer will use 1 of a number of techniques to effort to extort money from the victim. For instance the scammer will tell the victim they desire to visit just cannot beget transportation costs, or that the victim needs money for emergency medical bills, or money for equipment that will allow them to go along in contact with the victim.

In all these cases these are just attempts to put the victim out of pocket.

1. The Identity Thief

Many of us share plenty of data with our friends. Photos, birthdays, home towns and a plethora of statuses containing a variety of personal information about us.

And whilst this information tin can await innocuous and harmless, if information technology falls into the wrong hands it can be an identity thieves treasure chest.

If y'all accept the friend request of a stranger, or a stranger posing every bit a friend, and so they can accumulate a trove of information well-nigh you lot based on what you lot continually upload onto the site. This information can be used to compromise other online accounts, create new accounts in your name and just by and large impersonate yous on the Internet or even in existent life.

Identity theft is serious and tin can take victims years to recover from. So always make certain that your Facebook friends are who they say they are and never share as well much information on your accounts just in case someone does go their account compromised.

Dispelling a myth

There are enough of legitimate scams on Facebook, but in that location are likewise plenty of myths likewise.

One such myth is the fallacy of friend requests that tin can "hack" your computer, "erase your hard drive" too every bit other types of pseudo-jargon drivel that sounds more than akin to Hollywood's take on figurer security.

As yous can see from what we've listed to a higher place, in that location are plenty of scams that tin be initiated by a elementary friend request. But don't exist confused. There is no such thing equally magical hackers that can exercise anything they please by only beingness accepted every bit a friend on Facebook. Friend requests tin initiate a scam but they still crave the victim to accept further actions, such as giving away as well much information, or past visiting a unsafe website.

Don't be fooled by rumours nigh malicious hackers who will practice all sorts of trouble simply by being accepted every bit a friend on Facebook, information technology's all merely alarmist nonsense that detracts from a real effect.

Related commodity –
5 reasons why accepting strangers on Facebook is a bad thought

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