In the wake of a hoax,
which is doing rounds saying that the sender has received another friend
request from the recipient, Facebook officials confirm the claims of the
accounts being cloned as an attempt to befool the users.
The hoax which went
viral on Sunday is woven around a duplicate friend request message that asks
the receiver to forward it to their friends.
The message that had a
terrific number of Facebook users troubled to an extent that the reports of the
same saw an upsurge lately, reads "Hi I actually got another friend
request from you yesterday...which I ignored so you may want to check your
account.
'Hold your finger on
the message until the forward button appears...then hit forward and all the
people you want to forward too...I had to do the people individually. Good
Luck!'
Officials of the
social media giant said that there's no evidence of any virus being linked to
the scam messages or the dissemination of it, the cause of the same is said to
be based in fear.
It takes the form of a
"chain mail" type of notice, referenced from a spokesperson's
remarks, he further said, 'We've heard that some people are seeing posts or
messages about accounts being cloned on Facebook. He added, 'We haven't seen an
increase in incoming reports of impersonation (cloned accounts).
A cloning scam is when
someone creates an alternative Id of a user and puts the pictures and data he
stole from the original ID of the victim onto the duplicate account. This kind
of identity assault doesn't require access to the victim's original ID. Then, in a calculated
attempt to pile up more personal data, the criminal sends friend requests to
the victim's original friends (via friends list).
To ensure their
safety, users can go and search their name on Facebook, if accounts other than
your original one having a similar display and details make it to the search
results, odds are in the favor of your account being cloned.
Such cases are to be
immediately reported to the Facebook, requesting a removal of the duplicate
account which will be taken care of within 24 hours.
