Scam of the Day
Scam of the day – October 11, 2021 – FTC Refunding Money to Victims of Phantom Debt Collector
Receiving a telephone call from a debt collector is not a pleasant experience. Being hounded by someone attempting to collect a debt you do not owe is fraud. In 2018 I told you that the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) and the New York Attorney General brought legal action against Hylan Asset Management and its owners Andrew Shaevel and Jon E. Purizhansky alleging that they attempted to collect on phantom, non-existent debts even after some of the people they contacted provided records proving they did not owe the money alleged. The case was settled in 2019. As a condition of the settlement, the defendants were permanently banned from the debt collection business and agreed to pay a fine of $777,512 which is now being refunded to victims of the scam.
For more information about this refund program go to the tab in the middle of the Scamicide home page entitled “FTC Scam Refunds.” It is important to note that there is never a charge for obtaining a refund through the FTC or any of its refund administrators. Anyone who asks for such a payment is just another scammer.
TIPS
Subject to strict federal laws, legitimate debt collectors are permitted to call debtors, however, the law prohibits them from attempting to collect a debt that the debt collector knows is bogus.
It can be difficult to know when someone calls attempting to collect a debt if indeed they are legitimate or not, so the best course of action if you receive such a call is to not discuss the debt with the person calling, but instead demand that they send you a written “validation notice” by regular mail which describes the debt they allege you owe and includes a listing of your rights under the Federal Fair Debt Collection Practices Act. Never give personal information over the phone to anyone who calls you attempting to collect a debt. You can never be sure who they are. If you receive the validation notice and it appears to be legitimate, you may be better off contacting your creditor directly because the person who called you may not be representing the creditor, but may merely have information about the debt.
For those of you receiving the Scam of the day through an email, I just want to remind you that if you want to see the ever increasing list of Coronavirus scams go to the first page of the http://www.scamicide.com website and click on the tab at the top of the page that indicates “Coronavirus Scams.” Scamicide was cited by the New York Times as one of three top sources for information about Coronavirus related scams.
If you are not a subscriber to Scamicide.com and would like to receive 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 address where it states “Sign up for this blog.”
Scam of the day – October 10, 2021 – Breast Cancer Awareness Month Scams
October is Breast Cancer Awareness month and scammers are taking full advantage of the increased attention to this disease which is diagnosed in more than 200,000 women each year. Recently, I received a telephone call from a telemarketer seeking a contribution to a breast cancer charity or at least that is what she said. Even if you are on the federal Do-Not-Call List, the law permits charities and politicians to contact you. However, whenever you receive a telephone call, you can never be sure who is really calling you. Even if your Caller ID indicates that the call you are getting is coming from a charity the name of which you recognize, the call actually may be from a scammer using a technique called Spoofing to make it appear to your Caller ID as if the call is legitimate when it is not. The truth is that the call you receive may or may not be from a legitimate charity or a telemarketer on behalf of a legitimate charity and you can’t tell who is really on the other end of the line.
Other Breast Cancer Awareness month scams involve the pink ribbon often used as a symbol of breast cancer awareness. The pink ribbon symbol is not trademarked and may be put on products that can lead you to believe that the sale of the particular product is tied to the company’s monetary contribution to legitimate breast cancer organizations when, in fact, there may be no contribution or a very limited contribution being made by the company.
TIPS
When you receive such a call from a telemarketer or someone purporting to represent a charity, if you are interested in the particular charity the best thing you can do is just to ask them to send you written material. Do not provide your credit card number over the phone to anyone who calls you because you cannot be sure that they are legitimate. Also, as I have warned you in the past, many phony charities have names that are similar to real charities so it is always a good idea to investigate a charity before you make a charitable contribution. In addition, when you receive a charitable solicitation telephone call from a telemarketer, the telemarketer is generally being paid a commission for the money he or she collects. Thus, your contribution to the charity is diluted by the amount that goes to the telemarketer and as Jerry Seinfeld would say, “not that there is anything wrong with that.” However, if you really want to make your charitable contribution go farther, you will be better served by first checking out the particular charity at http://www.charitynavigator.org where you can find out not only if the particular charity is legitimate, but also how much of your contribution goes toward administrative costs and how much actually goes toward the charity’s charitable purposes. Then you can make your contribution directly to the charity without any amount being deducted for fund raising expenses.
For those of you receiving the Scam of the day through an email, I just want to remind you that if you want to see the ever increasing list of Coronavirus scams go to the first page of the http://www.scamicide.com website and click on the tab at the top of the page that indicates “Coronavirus Scams.” Scamicide was recently cited by the New York Times as one of three top sources for information about Coronavirus related scams.
If you are not a subscriber to Scamicide.com and would like to receive 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 address in the tab that states “Sign up for this blog.”
Scam of the day – October 9, 2021 – Ponzi Schemer Pleads Guilty
Scam artists around the world should probably honor Charles Ponzi, the man who perfected the scheme that bears his name that has been used by many scammers to steal billions of dollars from unwitting victims who made the mistake of investing their money with such criminals. Although, Ponzi was not the first to use the technique of paying off early investors with the investments of later investors in an effort to make a total sham look as if it is a profitable business, that dishonor should go to Sarah Howe who first used this scheme in the 1870s, it was Ponzi in 1920 who perfected the scam to steal millions of dollars from unwary investors in his scheme through which he told them that he was able to take advantage of fluctuating currency values to purchase international postal reply coupons at a discount and then sell them at face value in the United States. Ponzi promised, and delivered to early investors, a 50% profit on investments within 45 days and a 100% profit within 90 days. Of course, the entire scheme was a total fake, but eager investors blinded by their greed flocked to him to invest. Eventually, as ultimately always happens in a Ponzi scheme, the scam was exposed and Ponzi went to prison. However, the list of criminals still using this prototype of a scam continues to this day including such famous Ponzi scheme criminals as Allen Stanford, Tom Petters, Norman Hsu, Lou Pearlman and, of course, the biggest of them all, Bernie Madoff who swindled people out of more than 50 billion dollars using this time honored scheme.
In the Scam of the day for April 13, 2021 I told you about a recent Ponzi schemer, Zachary Horwitz who, as an actor used the name Zach Avery and was charged with wire fraud related to a Ponzi scheme in which he stole more than 230 million dollars from investors who invested in his movie distribution company which he told investors had business relationships with HBO and Netflix although the truth is that he had no business relationships with either company, but merely forged emails to make it appear that he did. As with many Ponzi Schemers, Horwitz was able to go on for years paying money derived from new investors to old investors who he promised guaranteed returns of at least 35% until 2019 when an investor of more than $160 million dollars demanded the return of his money and Horwitz was not able to comply. The investor then went to law enforcement who brought criminal charges against Horwitz, who has now pleaded guilty. He will be sentenced on January 3, 2021.
TIPS
So how do you protect yourself from falling prey to a Ponzi schemer? There are a number of things you can do including always investigate the credentials of any investment adviser you are considering using. You can check on individual investment advisers with the SEC, your own state’s securities regulators and the Financial Industry Regulatory Authority (FINRA). However, that would not have protected you from being swindled by the likes of Allen Stanford or Bernie Madoff. Also, you should never invest in anything that you do not totally understand. Bernie Madoff actually had the gall to blame his victims for being scammed by him because he said that if any of them had researched what he had told them he was doing, they would have known that what he was doing was impossible.
Movie investing is a very risky business and no one should invest in any business unless they truly understand the investment. Savvy investors would have been able to see through Horwitz’s empty promises. A good rule to follow is to never invest in anything you do not truly know.
Another important way to avoid a Ponzi schemer is to never use an investment adviser who is also the custodian of your funds. This is a recipe for disaster. The role of an investment adviser or manager should be solely that of advising and making trades. The custodian of the actual investments should be a separate broker-dealer regulated by the Financial Industry Regulatory Authority (FINRA) and backed by the Securities Investor Protection Corp. (SIPC). Never invest in anything that you don’t totally understand and be particularly wary of investments that promise huge returns or no risk of ever losing money even when market conditions are poor.
For those of you receiving the Scam of the day through an email, I just want to remind you that if you want to see the ever increasing list of Coronavirus scams go to the first page of the http://www.scamicide.com website and click on the tab at the top of the page that indicates “Coronavirus Scams.” Scamicide has been cited by the New York Times as one of three top sources for information about Coronavirus related scams.
If you are not a subscriber to Scamicide.com and would like to receive daily emails with the Scam of the day, all you need to do is sign up for free using this link. https://scamicide.com/scam-of-the-day/
Scam of the day – October 8, 2021 – It is Time for FAFSA Scams
High school students, college students and their parents are now filling out their 2022-2023 Free Application for Federal Student Aid (FAFSA) forms to apply for college financial aid. Many states and schools give out their financial aid funds on a first-come, first-served basis so it is important to complete your FAFSA form as soon as you can. Anyone who has ever applied for a student loan for college expenses is familiar with FAFSA, the Free Application for Student Aid, which is operated by the United States Department of Education. The office of Federal Student Aid is the largest issuer of financial aid to students in the country through grants, loans and work-study programs. All colleges use the FAFSA form and it is a primary resource for any student or the parent of any student seeking to find money to cover college expenses. The office of Federal Student Aid interactive website http://www.fafsa.ed.gov is a tremendously useful website. In 2015 I told you about scammers who operated a company named Student Financial Aid Services, Inc. which set up a number of websites including FAFSA.com taking advantage of consumer confusion over the name and offering fee-based assistance to students filling out the FAFSA form. According to the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB), when students entered their payment information for certain financial advisory services, the company started billing them for annual renewing subscriptions at costs of between $67 and $85 per year without the students’ knowledge. According to the CFPB more than 100,000 students were cheated out of more than 5 million dollars.
Scammers often tell you that they can get you more financial aid if you pay them a fee and they apply on your behalf, however, this rarely is the case and often these scammers will input false information that can get you in trouble. Filling out the FAFSA form is free and and not so complicated that you can’t do it for yourself. Also never provide your FAFSA ID to anyone. Many scammers have used that information to make you a victim of identity theft.
TIPS
Before paying for help with the FAFSA form, it is always a good idea to take advantage of the free help found at http://www.fafsa.ed.gov the official FAFSA website of the federal government. Financial aid is a complex matter and students and their families should familiarize themselves with the information available on the real website of the office of Federal Student Aid in order to be an informed consumer.
For those of you receiving the Scam of the day through an email, I just want to remind you that if you want to see the ever increasing list of Coronavirus scams go to the first page of the http://www.scamicide.com website and click on the tab at the top of the page that indicates “Coronavirus Scams.” Scamicide was recently cited by the New York Times as one of three top sources for information about Coronavirus related scams.
If you are not a subscriber to Scamicide.com and would like to receive 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 address in the tab that states “Sign up for this blog.”
Scam of the day – October 7, 2021 – Email Spoofing
A number of Scamicide readers have contacted me because they were concerned when they received a mailer-daemon notification in their email that would seem to indicate that their email had been used to send out spam emails. These Scamicide readers were worried that their email accounts had been hacked which, if true, could lead to many problems. Fortunately, the truth is that, in this instance, it is not likely that their email accounts were hacked, but rather that their email accounts had been “spoofed.”
Whenever you send an email it goes to a server named mailer-daemon which then forwards the email to other servers until the email reaches its destination. If the delivery fails, such as because the email address to which it was sent is not a legitimate email address or the email address was mistyped, a mailer-daemon error message is sent back to what mailer-daemon thinks is the original sender. However, merely because you receive a mailer-daemon error message does not mean that your email account was used to send the message. More likely is that your email address was forged and used to disguise the true email address of the sender of the spam. A good way to see if your email account was actually hacked is to check your sent folder. If it does not indicate that you have sent the spam emails, it is likely that your account was “spoofed” or forged to make the message appear as if it came from your email address, so while it is distressing to see that your email address was used in a forged email containing spam, it does not pose a security threat to you and your email address was not hacked.
TIPS
There is not much you can do to protect yourself from having your email address spoofed, however there are some things you can do that may help and will make you feel better. Use your security software to do a scan of your devices to check for malware. Most likely none will be found. Report the mailer-daemon spam as junk mail to your email provider and send the email to your spam filters which will help your email provider to help prevent this from happening in the future. Finally, even though your sent folder does not indicate that you sent the spam email, you may wish to inform your contacts not to respond to such spam if they get an email that appears to come from you. Do not respond or attempt to block the sender because that merely informs the scammer who sent the spam that your email address is a working account.
For those of you receiving the Scam of the day through an email, I just want to remind you that if you want to see the ever increasing list of Coronavirus scams go to the first page of the http://www.scamicide.com website and click on the tab at the top of the page that indicates “Coronavirus Scams.” Scamicide was recently cited by the New York Times as one of three top sources for information about Coronavirus related scams.
If you are not a subscriber to Scamicide.com and would like to receive 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 address in the tab that states “Sign up for this blog.”
Scam of the day – October 6, 2021 – Bogus Debt Collector Permanently Banned from Collection Business
Receiving a telephone call from a debt collector is not a pleasant experience. Being hounded by someone attempting to collect a debt you do not owe is fraud. I have written many times in the past about scammers who use deceptive and abusive collections practices in attempting to collect non-existent debts. These scammers violate the Fair Debt Collection Practices Act by making threatening and verbally abusive phone calls, contacting third parties about the phony debts, threatening legal action and attempting to collect debts that the scammers knew were not owed. Last year, the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) initiated Operation Corrupt Collector, a joint action by the FTC and state authorities to shut down illegal debt collectors. In the Scam of the day for October 17, 2020 I told you that the FTC obtained a Temporary Restraining Order shutting down Critical Resolution Mediation LLC’s illegal debt collection operation while legal action continued against it. According to the FTC, Critical Resolution Mediation LLC’s employees threatened consumers with arrest, wage garnishment, revocation of drivers’ licenses and lower credit scores if they did not pay debts claimed by Critical Resolution Mediation that in many instances were never ever owed, so-called phantom debts. The FTC also alleged that Critical Resolution LLC illegally contacted consumers at their workplace and illegally notified family members about the phony debts. Now the FTC and Critical Resolution Mediation settled the legal action. Pursuant to the settlement, Critical Resolution Mediation is permanently banned from the debt collection industry and must pay a fine.
TIPS
Subject to strict federal laws, legitimate debt collectors are permitted to call debtors, however, the law prohibits them from threatening imprisonment for the failure to pay a debt and attempting to collect a debt that the debt collector knows is bogus. It can be difficult to know when someone calls attempting to collect a debt if indeed they are legitimate or not, so your best course of action if you receive such a call is to not discuss the debt with the person calling, but instead demand that they send you a written “validation notice” by regular mail which describes the debt they allege you owe and includes a listing of your rights under the Federal Fair Debt Collection Practices Act. In this case, Critical Resolution Mediation never supplied the validation notices as required by the Fair Debt Collection Practices Act. Never give personal information over the phone to anyone who calls you attempting to collect a debt. You can never be sure who they are. You also can check your credit report at each of the three credit reporting agencies, Equifax, Experian and TransUnion to see if any debts which you are not aware of appear on your credit reports. If you receive the validation notice and it appears to be legitimate, you may be better off contacting your creditor directly because the person who called you may not be representing the creditor, but may merely have information about the debt.
For those of you receiving the Scam of the day through an email, I just want to remind you that if you want to see the ever increasing list of Coronavirus scams go to the first page of the http://www.scamicide.com website and click on the tab at the top of the page that indicates “Coronavirus Scams.” Scamicide was recently cited by the New York Times as one of three top sources for information about Coronavirus related scams.
If you are not a subscriber to Scamicide.com and would like to receive 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 address in the tab that states “Sign up for this blog.”
Scam of the day – October 5, 2021 – Medicare Open Enrollment Scams
The annual open enrollment period for Medicare will begin on October 15th and continue until December 7th. This is the only time during the year that people enrolled in Medicare can change their Medicare health plans, Medigap plans and prescription drug plans. By now, people already enrolled in Medicare should have received an Annual Notice of Change from their health insurance providers describing any changes to their plans such as the dropping of particular drugs from their prescription drug plan. If you are satisfied with your plans, you do not need to do anything.
Although the Medicare open enrollment period hasn’t even begun, already scammers are hard at work on a number of different scams. Scammers and identity thieves view the open enrollment period as senior citizen hunting season as myriads of Medicare scams are common during this time. Seniors may be contacted by someone purporting to be from their insurance company asking them to verify information. This is a common tactic of identity thieves trying to trick their victims into providing information. They also may be contacted by people claiming to have supplemental insurance programs that will save them thousands of dollars. Here too, you cannot be sure that they are legitimate when they contact you by phone, text message, email or even regular mail.
TIPS
Never give personal information to anyone who calls you on the phone because you can never be sure who is actually on the other end of the line. Through a technique called “spoofing,” a scammer can manipulate your Caller ID and make it appear that the call is from the government or some legitimate company when in fact, it is from an identity thief who is eager to steal your money. If you want to get information you can trust about what insurance plans are available to you and at what cost, merely go to the “Plan Finder” section of Medicare’s website http://www.medicare.gov. If you want to speak with someone on the phone, call Medicare at its 24 hour hotline 1-800-MEDICARE. Your Medicare options can be quite confusing. Fortunately, the State Health Insurance Assistance Programs (SHIP) which is a national network of federally funded programs provides free Medicare counseling. Here is a link to SHIP’s website https://www.shiptacenter.org/
For those of you receiving the Scam of the day through an email, I just want to remind you that if you want to see the ever increasing list of Coronavirus scams go to the first page of the http://www.scamicide.com website and click on the tab at the top of the page that indicates “Coronavirus Scams.” Scamicide was recently cited by the New York Times as one of three top sources for information about Coronavirus related scams.
If you are not a subscriber to Scamicide.com and would like to receive 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 address in the tab that states “Sign up for this blog.”
Scam of the day – October 4, 2021 – Malicious Apps Steal Millions from Android Users
There seems to be a mobile app for just about anything you could possibly want to do and scammers are quite aware of this which is why scammers have turned to malware infected apps frequently in recent years. Recently the mobile security firm Zimperium uncovered a massive app scam affecting more than ten million people around the world who downloaded any of 200 infected apps. The scammers managed to steal hundreds of millions of dollars from their victims through this scam.
The infected apps when downloaded would cause pop-up ads and notifications of special offers and prizes to appear on the victim’s phone. If the victim responded to these notifications and pop ups by providing their cell phone number as requested, they would unknowingly be signing up for a premium text message service that charged $35 or more monthly.
Perhaps most troubling about this scam was that the malware infected apps were available through the Google Play store. While Google tries to monitor the Google Play store to keep scammers out, they certainly aren’t perfect. Upon discovering the scam, Zimperium notified Google who promptly removed the infected apps from the Google Play store, however, this scam is a warning to all of us not to blindly trust that all of the apps found in legitimate app stores are safe.
TIPS
If you have an Android phone you should check to see if you downloaded any of the infected apps. Here is a link to the Zimperium memorandum that lists all of the 200 infected apps
GriftHorse Android Trojan Steals Millions from Over 10 Million Victims Globally
It is important to limit your downloading of apps to legitimate sources such as the Apple App Store and Google Play to avoid malware infected apps. Before downloading any app, read the reviews carefully. While scammers will write glowing phony reviews about their apps, their reviews are usually cursory and do not provide much information. You can also go directly to a legitimate retailers website for information about any apps they may have for their products. Also, you can do a search on Google or other search engines using the words “fake app” along with the name of the company whose app you are interested in to see if there have been reports of problems. Finally, make sure that you have installed security software on your phone and that it is updated with the latest security patches.
For many years I have been warning you about the dangers of cramming. Cramming is the name for putting unauthorized third party charges on to a consumer’s telephone bill without the knowledge or approval of the consumer. There are many ways that these unauthorized charges make their way to a victim’s phone, sometimes, consumers unknowingly sign up for premium texting services that may be for things such as flirting tips, horoscopes or celebrity gossip. Whatever the source of the charges, they are fraudulent and typically cost about $9.99 per month, but can be as high as 24.95 and continue to appear for months without end.
In order to protect yourself from cramming you should carefully review your phone bill each month to identify if cramming charges appeared anywhere on your bill. These charges often appear with vague descriptions so if you don’t recognize any charge, you should contact your provider to explain the charges to you. Sometimes the charges appear in sections of your bill labeled “miscellaneous” or “third party charges.” Receiving unsolicited text messages is often an indication that you are a victim of cramming so if you do receive such messages, check your phone bill carefully to see if these are related to unauthorized charges. Most cell phone carriers will allow you to block charges from third parties for free, which is a good way to avoid cramming.
For those of you receiving the Scam of the day through an email, I just want to remind you that if you want to see the ever increasing list of Coronavirus scams go to the first page of the http://www.scamicide.com website and click on the tab at the top of the page that indicates “Coronavirus Scams.” Scamicide has been cited by the New York Times as one of three top sources for information about Coronavirus related scams.
If you are not a subscriber to Scamicide.com and would like to receive daily emails with the Scam of the day, all you need to do is sign up for free using this link. https://scamicide.com/scam-of-the-day/
Scam of the day – October 3, 2021 – FTC Sending Refunds to Victims of Phony Training Program Scam
In the Scam of the day for February 2, 2021 I told you about that the Federal Trade Commission had settled claims against Seed Consulting LLC after the FTC had filed a complaint against the company for charging consumers between $3,000 and $4,000 merely to apply on their behalf for multiple credit cards with total credit lines of more than $50,000, a practice referred to as “credit card stacking.” The credit cards were then used to pay for expensive and generally useless training programs that purported to train aspiring entrepreneurs seeking to start businesses or to become successful real estate investors.
Pursuant to the terms of the settlement, Seed Consulting LLC paid 2.1 million dollars to the FTC which is now sending refunds to the victims of the scam. For more information about the refund program go the tab marked “FTC Scam Refunds” in the middle of the first page of http://www.scamicide.com.
According to Andrew Smith of the FTC, “Seed obtained credit cards for consumers by using inflated income, and then shared the credit limits with promoters of bogus real estate seminars who tricked consumers into maxing out the cards to pay for the seminar ‘tuition.'” Many of these training companies had already been charged by the FTC with operating deceptive training schemes. Most consumers who paid for these training programs earned little if anything from the programs and ended up with substantial credit card debt and lower credit scores.
TIPS
You should always be wary of any company that charges a significant fee merely to assist you in obtaining credit cards. You don’t need the help of third parties to whom you must pay a fee to apply for credit cards on your behalf. In particular, any company that encourages you to falsely inflate your income on credit card applications should be avoided. As for training programs to teach you how to start a business or invest in real estate, there are plenty of free or low cost materials you can get that can be quite helpful. Always research any such business coaching program before purchasing it. A simple way to research such companies is to do to Google or other search engine search with the name of the company and the word “scam” and see what comes up.
For those of you receiving the Scam of the day through an email, I just want to remind you that if you want to see the ever increasing list of Coronavirus scams go to the first page of the http://www.scamicide.com website and click on the tab at the top of the page that indicates “Coronavirus Scams.” Scamicide has been cited by the New York Times as one of three top sources for information about Coronavirus related scams.
If you are not a subscriber to Scamicide.com and would like to receive daily emails with the Scam of the day, all you need to do is sign up for free using this link. https://scamicide.com/scam-of-the-day/
Scam of the day – October 2, 2021 – Protecting Your Facebook Account from being Hacked or Cloned
Many people are receiving a Facebook post from friends saying their account had been hacked and not to accept friend requests by them. Many people cut and pasted the message and sent it out to all of their friends as the post asked them to do. However, often there is no need to panic. The message is not accurate.
If one of your friends actually received a friend request that appeared to come from you, it does not mean that your account was hacked. It usually means however that your account was cloned in the sense that someone has set up a Facebook account or some other social media account in your name or a slight variation of it in order to trick people into trusting messages that they post, to lure them into scams or to trick them into clicking on links containing malware. This is nothing new. Facebook estimates that there are as many as 60 million phony cloned Facebook accounts including hundreds of its founder Mark Zuckerberg. Facebook tries to remove the cloned accounts when it becomes aware of them, but they spring up again soon thereafter. If you do find that someone has set up a Facebook account in your name, you should contact Facebook as soon as possible in order for Facebook to take action to cancel the phony cloned account. Here is a link you can use to report such a phony or cloned account. https://www.facebook.com/help/306643639690823?helpref=uf_permalink
Unfortunately, however, sometimes cybercriminals will hack and take over Facebook accounts. They then can leverage the information there to make you a victim of identity theft. They also can use your account to distribute scams that your friends may fall victim to because they believe the posts they see were posted by you rather than a scammer. Often Facebook hacks start when the criminal hacks your email account and then uses your email to reset your Facebook password. They then will change the email account and phone associated with your account, making it difficult to correct the problem.
TIPS
As indicated above, if you do receive a friend request from someone who already is a Facebook friend of yours, you should contact the friend to let them know that their Facebook account has been cloned so they can report it to Facebook and get the phony, cloned account taken down. It is also important to remember that there will be times that you are contacted by what appear to be real friends or acquaintances where the truth is that it really is not them contacting you, but someone posing as them. Never click on links in any email or text message unless you have absolutely confirmed that the communication is legitimate. Never provide personal information in response to any communication as well until you have confirmed that it is legitimate. As I always warn you, trust me, you can’t trust anyone.
As for protecting your Facebook account from actually being hacked, the first thing you should do is make sure you have a strong password. For some advice about choosing a strong password, go to the Search scams tab in http://www.scamicide.com and write in “strong password” which will bring up a number of Scams of the day in which I described how to pick a strong password. You should also enable two factor authentication for your account which will dramatically strengthen the security of your Facebook account. Here is a link with more information about how to install dual factor authentication for your Facebook account. https://m.facebook.com/help/148233965247823?helpref=faq_content You also may want to review your privacy settings on Facebook to make them less vulnerable to hackers. Here is a link with more information about adjusting your privacy settings on Facebook. https://m.facebook.com/help/193677450678703?helpref=hc_fnav&refid=69
You also may want to use Facebook’s Trusted Contact feature through which you can use your friends to help you reclaim your account if you are prevented from accessing it due to a hacker. Here is a link for the Trusted Contact feature.https://www.facebook.com/help/213343062033160
Finally if a hacker has taken over your account and you are unable to get access to your account, Click on this link. https://www.facebook.com/hacked
For those of you receiving the Scam of the day through an email, I just want to remind you that if you want to see the ever increasing list of Coronavirus scams go to the first page of the http://www.scamicide.com website and click on the tab at the top of the page that indicates “Coronavirus Scams.”
If you are not a subscriber to Scamicide.com and would like to receive 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 address where the tab states “Sign up for this blog.”