For help, advice and discussion about stuff not related to aviation. Play nice: no religion, no politics and no axe grinding please.
By Lefty
FLYER Club Member  FLYER Club Member
#1887196
My Facebook account seems to be hacked at annoyingly short intervals -approx 8 times in last 12 months - plus 3 times within the last six weeks!!

I get phone calls, texts and emails from friends all telling me that they have received multiple Messenger messages purporting to be from me, and either
a) asking them for help,
b) asking them to email (me) back
d) asking them to buy something,
d) asking them to access a link to some (probably fake) charity website.

One person has received almost 20 messages including several failed video calls - all allegedly from me.

What’s strange is that I never (ever) use messenger myself (Except that there is one forumite who regularly sends me stuff via Messenger).

Each time this has happened I have :
Firstly logged out of Facebook on all my internet devices Second, shut down (powered off) all my internet devices
Third, restarted one internet device and Gone onto my Facebook account and changed my password -( not a system generated, but nonetheless a quite complex and “impossible to guess” combination of text, numbers and special characters). - then saved that password to that device.
Lastly, open my other internet devices and logged onto Facebook using the new password - and saved that password onto each device.

I’d be grateful for any expert advice on what to do.
#1887200
Not seeing the posts it is difficult to know, but from my time on Facebook (in the past) the account isn't physically hacked, just spoofed - a duplicate account created using elements lifted from your visible profile.

Most experienced users contacted by one of these spoofs will spot it instantly. They are not hard to spot.

If you want to make certain, just bin Facebook.

Rob P
Colonel Panic, leiafee, Cessna571 and 2 others liked this
By johnm
FLYER Club Member  FLYER Club Member
#1887206
Dig through all the settings and lock them down as tight as possible, enter false information in your profile for everything except your name.

If the miscreants have already harvested your contacts it may be too late.
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By leiafee
FLYER Club Member  FLYER Club Member
#1887214
2FA on All The Things always, but Rob is right, this is way more likely to be profile scraping than actual compromise.

If if it’s happening often then I’d reduce the amount of my profile data that was publically visible, and stick a note on my profile to tell me friends “If another Me asks to be friends it isn’t me!”
kanga liked this
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By Flyin'Dutch'
FLYER Club Member  FLYER Club Member
#1887243
It is very easy to make a duplicate account on Facebook.

You just cut and paste some pictures of the original account. Make a new account using the name of the victim and the photos and away they go.

It requires some vigilance of your mates to spot that they don't want to befriend you again and if they don't spot it and a few will befriend you again and hey presto the new account is gathering some authenticity.

Facebook is cr@p but for somethings it is a useful platform for which, not yet, a decent alternative does not exist yet.
By Lefty
FLYER Club Member  FLYER Club Member
#1887275
Thanks for the info everyone, very useful.
I’ve checked and none of the messages show on my account - so it definitely was spoofing.

I’ve found my way into Facebook security settings and set almost everything to “ only viewable by me”

I’ve posted a warning on my FB page explaining the above and warning friends to ignore FB message from me.

It was a bit a giveaway, sending me a friends request from myself, with my own photo!

I’d love to ditch FB entirely, but it is currently the only way to see what’s happening with my ex military comrades, former band members as well as a lot of my extended family spread around the globe. I’ll see if it calms down, thanks for the help.
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By PeteSpencer
FLYER Club Member  FLYER Club Member
#1887287
I must admit to quite liking Facebook for its niche groups.

However I have locked down tight my security settings and have not had any further spoofing following some troublesome attacks a coupla years ago .

Not half as bad as when the Russians get hold of yer email address :my email account was paralysed by returning spam cr ap a few years ago - I had to bin my email address for three months - fortunately I had ( and still have) a coupla spare email addresses up my sleeve . :wink:
Flyin'Dutch' liked this