Greg Edwards69 Posted November 14, 2023 Share Posted November 14, 2023 On 09/11/2023 at 19:23, Cliff Edge said: Facebook threatened to take down one of my accounts years ago because they didn’t like my name. To be fair it was obviously not a real name and they gave me the opportunity to change it. So I did, to Mahatma Coat from Glasgow. They seemed happy with that and I continued to use it for several years until they again asked me to change it. A couple of friends of mine had a similar thing. Both of them worked for the local council, with members of the public, and frequently vulnerable people. They used pseudonyms as they didn't want to be tracked down easily by members of the public, until Facebook changed the rules saying that fake names were no longer allowed. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Greg Edwards69 Posted November 14, 2023 Share Posted November 14, 2023 (edited) 12 hours ago, Downunderwonder said: From what we discussed earlier I think they start by posting as a friend messaging you about some b.s that requires a code. They quickly pose as you to FB locked out or wanting to do admin or sommat, and you are silly enough to give it to them. That's the only way I can see how it could be done short of an actual hack. How they fool you that it's your friend messaging you on some other platform I have no idea. It's quite easy to create a "spoofed" fake/cloned account. As long as the name looks right and it has a profile picture of your friend it's easy to fool someone. Whilst the spoofed account can't directly message you, then by default they can send you a message request. It only takes a momentary lapse of judgement to accept it. This setting can be changed within messenger to "Don't receive requests" which I understand blocks them. If I get a friend request or message request from someone I definitely know are friends on FB, I'll double-check it. The same goes for competition adverts from big companies. And don't get me started on those security question, data harvesting posts, such as "Your porn star name is your first pet followed by the road you grew up on" Edited November 14, 2023 by Greg Edwards69 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
TimR Posted November 14, 2023 Share Posted November 14, 2023 (edited) It's viral. One person falls victim and then the hackers send the link to everyone in their contacts. I suspect the link takes you to a fake fb login, you try and login with password and it 'fails'. The hackers then have your password. The link then tells you to wait for a code that will be texted. The hackers change your password and Facebook texts you a code that you enter into their link. They now have the code. You don't have to 'give' or 'send' anything to an actual person. My friend was alerted to the problem when he received multiple texts that he'd not requested after clicking on a game link. He went to his actual Facebook and changed his password several times but something else was going on. You don't have to be 'stupid' to fall for the scam. Just if you enter your password and it 'fails' - stop. Then go to your actaul account and change it quickly before the text message comes. Or more likely don't ever enter your password except via the app or your PC on the real FB address. Edited November 14, 2023 by TimR Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Steve Browning Posted November 14, 2023 Author Share Posted November 14, 2023 A guitarist mate's account sent me a message, asking me to vote for him in a music competition. It was that aspect that made me drop my guard. He had been hacked so it was his account but not under his control - as is mine now. I provided the code requested 'to verify my vote' and I guess it was the recovery code for my account. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
nilorius Posted November 14, 2023 Share Posted November 14, 2023 Sad, but all my job and friend chats had always been on messanger. Looks like it must move to whatsup in near future. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
chris_b Posted November 14, 2023 Share Posted November 14, 2023 I don't really do FB, but I'm currently receiving an avalanche of mobile and land line scam calls. The scum bags are pulling out all the stops for Christmas! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Cliff Edge Posted November 14, 2023 Share Posted November 14, 2023 6 hours ago, Greg Edwards69 said: A couple of friends of mine had a similar thing. Both of them worked for the local council, with members of the public, and frequently vulnerable people. They used pseudonyms as they didn't want to be tracked down easily by members of the public, until Facebook changed the rules saying that fake names were no longer allowed. They may not be allowed but my FB accounts all have fake names. A couple of them are fairly obvious too. At one time you weren’t allowed to have more than one account but I’m not sure that still applies. Although rather like your age, very difficult to police. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Franticsmurf Posted January 5 Share Posted January 5 Just before Christmas I had four or five of text messages (roughly one every other day), each with a Facebook recovery code. I guess someone was trying to hack my account as I hadn't triggered them directly, nor had I experienced any of the things in the posts above that might have triggered them. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
asingardenof Posted January 5 Share Posted January 5 6 hours ago, Franticsmurf said: Just before Christmas I had four or five of text messages (roughly one every other day), each with a Facebook recovery code. I guess someone was trying to hack my account as I hadn't triggered them directly, nor had I experienced any of the things in the posts above that might have triggered them. I'm getting this at the moment Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Franticsmurf Posted January 5 Share Posted January 5 1 hour ago, asingardenof said: I'm getting this at the moment They stopped after about 2 weeks. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
neepheid Posted January 5 Share Posted January 5 I've had a couple of these also, recently. Ignored - I didn't request them. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Downunderwonder Posted January 5 Share Posted January 5 What were you meant to do with the "recovery code" sent by text? ( I mean aside from delete it, what was the scammer wanting?) This sort of thing hasn't happened here yet so I am still trying to understand it. Before AI broke out I got a very convincing sounding incredibly posh English Asian lady leaving me a voice mail that my credit card was being run up. I imagine she got a few to "press 1 now". Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
asingardenof Posted January 6 Share Posted January 6 5 hours ago, Downunderwonder said: What were you meant to do with the "recovery code" sent by text? ( I mean aside from delete it, what was the scammer wanting?) This sort of thing hasn't happened here yet so I am still trying to understand it. Before AI broke out I got a very convincing sounding incredibly posh English Asian lady leaving me a voice mail that my credit card was being run up. I imagine she got a few to "press 1 now". I don't know about texts but I've recently had legitimate emails from FB with recovery codes, indicating that someone has tried to access my account, but the fact that I have multi-factor authentication (MFA) enabled means they haven't been able to. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
lozkerr Posted January 6 Share Posted January 6 On 14/11/2023 at 11:09, TimR said: Or more likely don't ever enter your password except via the app or your PC on the real FB address. THIS 👆👆👆 Never, ever, click or tap on a link in a text, email or WhatsApp message, even if you think the sender is genuine. Instead, do the boring old-school thing of opening a new browser window and logging in as normal. It can seem a bit of a faff, but it does give you a defence against accusations of not taking proper security precautions if the worst does happen. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
LowB_FTW Posted January 6 Share Posted January 6 On iPhones and iPads if you press and hold the link, it brings up a preview of the page you'll be taken to as well as display the actual URL, so you know exactly where the link is going to take you. This also works in Safari, press and hold the link and see a preview of the linked page without opening the page. To open the link, tap the preview, or tap Open. To close the preview without visiting the page, just tap anywhere outside the preview window. This is helpful if you don't have the time to go out of the mail application, into safari, check the site/account that the link is purporting to be from, then go back into mail to deal with it. It's always safest to never click on any links you are unsure about, but I've found the iOS/iPadOS previews to be a great little asset to have available if you need them. YMMV. Mark Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
asingardenof Posted January 6 Share Posted January 6 5 hours ago, LowB_FTW said: On iPhones and iPads if you press and hold the link, it brings up a preview of the page you'll be taken to as well as display the actual URL, so you know exactly where the link is going to take you. This also works in Safari, press and hold the link and see a preview of the linked page without opening the page. To open the link, tap the preview, or tap Open. To close the preview without visiting the page, just tap anywhere outside the preview window. This is helpful if you don't have the time to go out of the mail application, into safari, check the site/account that the link is purporting to be from, then go back into mail to deal with it. It's always safest to never click on any links you are unsure about, but I've found the iOS/iPadOS previews to be a great little asset to have available if you need them. YMMV. Mark This also works in Outlook for Android Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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