There is a first for everything and today is a first in the more than ten years that I have been writing Scamicide.  Today I am telling you about an email that looks like it is a phishing email from Facebook, but actually is legitimate.  It has all of the markings of a scam in that it presents you with an emergency and steps you must take or your account will be frozen, however, in this case the email is legitimate.  An indication that this email is legitimate is that it doesn’t ask you to click on any links in the email or provide personal information in response to the email, but merely instructs you to go to your Facebook page to update your account’s security.  In addition the email address from which the email was sent is a real Facebook email address.

Facebook is sending this email about activating Facebook Protect security to accounts it deems at risk.  Initially Facebook Protect was set up to assist political office holders, candidates and others whose accounts were targets of hackers to spread disinformation, but now the Facebook Protect program has been expanded to others with high follower accounts.

Facebook Protect will help you set up enhanced dual factor authentication for your account, which is always a good thing.  People receiving the email who don’t activate Facebook Protect will be locked out of their accounts so it is important to take this seriously.

If you weren’t asked to sign up for Facebook Protect, you don’t have to activate the Facebook Protect protections, but I do advise everyone to do so.  I have written in the past about numerous Facebook based scams, many of which could be avoided if you activate Facebook Protect protections.  If you would like to see the many Facebook based scams about which I have written over the last ten years, go to the first page of Scamicide.com and click on the tab that indicates “Search for Scams” and type in “Facebook.”

Here is a copy of the email I received.

Turn on Facebook Protect Facebook Your account requires stronger security from Facebook Protect Hi Steve, We’re upgrading protection for Facebook accounts like yours and need your help to enable a required security program by June 3. It’s called Facebook Protect and it uses advanced security measures to help defend your account against potential vulnerabilities. Turn on Facebook Protect for your account by June 3. After that, you will not be able to access your account until you’ve done so. To enable Facebook Protect: 1. Log into your account on Facebook. 2. Go into security settings and look for the Facebook Protect option. 3. Follow the steps to enable the program for your account. For security reasons, we have not included direct links to Facebook Protect in this email. Steve Weisman Requires Facebook Protect Thanks, The Facebook Security Team

TIPS

In order to activate your Facebook Protect security features, merely log in to your Facebook account and go to your security settings and then go to Facebook Protect and follow the directions.

As a final warning, scammers are pretty inventive and take advantage of everything so we can expect phony phishing emails to copy this email and lure you into clicking on links or providing personal information.  If you do receive an email that appears to come from Facebook asking either for you to click on a link in the email or to provide personal information, don’t do it.  It is a scam.

If you are not a subscriber to Scamicide.com and would like to receive free daily emails with the Scam of the day, all you need to do is to go to the bottom of the initial page of http://www.scamicide.com and type in your email where it states “Sign up for this blog.”