Cape Town - Online fraudsters are targeting unsecure and compromised Facebook accounts, cloning them and using them in online scams.
The scam involves making exact duplicates of profiles on the website by borrowing someone’s name, profile picture and even more intimate details if they are available.
The fake account is then used to scam the victim’s friends and family by posing as the victim on the site.
Countless users have taken to the social media website to report their account being cloned.
“Please don’t accept another friend request from me, someone made a fake account,” wrote one.
“I have received reports that some of my friends are receiving additional friend requests from both my profiles. Please don’t accept them, someone is obviously trying to clone my account,” wrote another.
Many users reported their cloned accounts had been used to ask for money from their friends.
World Wide Worx founder and IT expert Arthur Goldstuck told the Cape Argus the scam had been around for years, but was becoming increasingly popular as traditional scams became less effective. Goldstuck said cloning did not require knowledge of hacking. An internet connection and the ability to create new accounts on Facebook were all that were needed.
“They generally go looking for profiles that are easy to access, where a lot of the information is public.”
Goldstuck said the problem was that people trusted someone they thought they knew. He said users should not be lulled into a false sense of security.
Confidential information should not be stored on a public site. - Cape Argus