Governor General Sir Rodney Williams has been the latest victim of social media scamming by the way of Facebook and Instagram cloning. The Governor General had to go so far as to issue a press release denouncing the fake accounts.
According to www.hoax-slayer.net, Facebook cloning is NOT “hacking” as claimed in some circulating security warnings. The scammers have not gained access to the victim’s real Facebook account or tricked the user into divulging his or her login details. They have simply copied publicly available information and images and used them to create a new profile.
Why would scammers do this? Once the scammers have created a fake profile, they can send friend requests to people on the targeted person’s friends list.
At least a few of the victim’s friends may accept this second friend request because they mistakenly believe that the victim has accidentally unfriended them. Or, people with a large number of Facebook friends may have forgotten that they were already friends with the victim and accept the second friend request. And, regrettably, some Facebook users tend to immediately accept friend requests without due forethought.
Once the scammers have a few “friends” on the fake profile, they can then start sending scam messages in the name of their victim.
The scammers may also use the illusion of friendship to collect personal information from the victim’s friends. A clever cloner may even be able to commit identity theft by tricking the victim’s friends into divulging a large amount of their personal and financial information.
If you have a Facebook account and want to report someone that’s pretending to be you or someone you know:
1. Go to the profile of the impersonating account
a) If you can’t find it, try searching for the name used on the profile or asking your friends if they can send you a link to it.
2. Click on the cover photo and select Report
3. Follow the on-screen instructions for impersonation to file a report
If you don’t have a Facebook account and want to report someone that’s pretending to be you or someone you know, please fill out this form.
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