Suzanne Doherty of Arlington, Texas recently had her Facebook account hacked. The hacker obtained Ms. Doherty’s user name and password directly from Ms. Doherty when she contacted what she thought was the Facebook customer service telephone number that she obtained through a Google search. The truth is that there is no Facebook customer service telephone number. Shrewd scammers managed to set up a phony Facebook customer service website and manipulate Google’s algorithms to get the first position in a search.  Last October I told you about a similar scam regarding a phony Netflix customer service number. In that case the Netflix customer ended up giving his credit card information to the scammer who used it to steal from the customer.
Clever scamners are increasingly setting up phony websites that appear to be for customer service or tech support of many of the companies with which we do business or purchasing telephone numbers that are a single digit off of the legitimate phone numbers for many companies’ tech support or customer support in order to take advantage of common consumer misdials.
Compounding the problem is the fact that for much social media, you will not readily find a telephone number to call and speak to a real person about your problem.  They only provide online support.
TIPS
The best place to look for a telephone number for customer support or tech support is right on your bill or the legitimate website for the company.  When calling, take extra care to make sure that you are dialing correctly so you don’t end up talking to a scammer.
Among the social media services that do not provide tech support by phone are Facebook, Instagram, Snapchat and Twitter.  Here are links to tech support for those social media services:
Facebook:  https://www.facebook.com/help/
Instagram: https://help.instagram.com/
Snapchat: https://support.snapchat.com/en-US
Twitter: https://support.twitter.com/
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