In the past, we have often pointed out attempts at fraud related to copied Facebook user profiles.
We often receive inquiries as to whether this or that warning about this scam is real. Using a current example, we would like to show you again how such an attempted fraud works and how you can protect yourself and your friends as best as possible.
The current case that will serve as an example occurred in the last few hours (September 1st, 2013):
An angry user reports to ZDDK on the wall and reports that her account has been “cracked”.
Friends would be contacted on her behalf and informed that she had created a new account. Some of the friends were suspicious and informed the owner of the original profile about it. This was the best they could do. After we had contact with the user, we located the copied profile and contacted her via Facebook under an excuse. We don't want to withhold the chat history from you at this point.
Entertainment started Sunday
17:24 ZDDK Profile
Do you have a new profile?17:25 Scammer Profile
Yes, hello, how are you, have you heard the good news?17:25 ZDDK Profile
Which one?17:26 Scammer Profile
I was wondering if you have heard about the empowerment program in conjunction with Facebook Bonus, the program is to help people and maintain good living standards of all the entire community, you have a bonus from Money Agent Kenneth Got Twine?17:27 ZDDK Profile
No, I didn't get it17:28 Scammer Profile
It is an empowerment program to help people especially the seniors, adults, youth, I have already received from them, the USPS came to my door step and deliver cash €150,000 for me personally17:29 ZDDK Profile
Aha and how does that work? CAN I DO THIS TOO? Sounds great. I'm happy for you, dear Thea!17:32 Scammer Profile
Oh, I thought you got yours from them too because I saw your name on the winners list when the USPS came to my door step asking for money to deliver to me in person 25th last month .17:33 ZDDK Profile
My name on the winners list!
OK very nice! What does that mean, have I won anything? Can I win something?17:35 Scammer Profile
I think you should contact the agent via email to claim your funds is his email ( [email protected] ) you can text him (813) 280-5720 or (821) 546-978 -0817:37 ZDDK Profile
OK, I'll be happy to do it!
Do you know what else I will do, dear Thea! I will report you to the police because you are fraudsters!
Thanks for the phone number, I'll give it to the police!
As you can see, we were tempted to contact a certain Twine Kenneth by email or telephone with the prospect of winning.
Which, of course, we wouldn't recommend to anyone. If we reported, the people behind this campaign would have an active email address for further fraud attempts and spam or an active telephone number to continue or try this or another fraud by telephone. As part of our research, we of course looked around on various platforms and looked for the relevant phone numbers. Among other things, we found what we were looking for on the website http://www.tellows.de/num/082154697808 . One of the numbers based in Augsburg has already been reported here several times. This is apparently also used for other telephone fraud attempts. The person called is promised a trip and a sum of money as a prize and is asked for personal information such as bank details. There is also a warning from a user on Facebook ( https://www.facebook.com/fakepostings/posts/10200812910150472 ) who has a text from http://de.unknownphone.com/search.php?num=082154697808 quoted.
So much for the current case. Now, as announced in the introduction, a brief description of what the scammers do to contact new victims and what you can do to protect yourself as best as possible.
How can the scammers send messages on behalf of users?
The fraudsters cannot really do this with this approach. What is happening here has nothing to do with “cracking” or “hacking” an account. On Facebook it is understandably possible for multiple profiles with identical names to exist. These can usually be distinguished by the profile picture and the address of the profile. An example: https://www.facebook.com/ max.mustermann and https://www.facebook.com/ max.musterman45 . So there would be two model men here. Once the Max who was probably the first to register with this name and once the Max who was preceded by 44 other Maxes. BUT BE CAREFUL: Not every profile with a number has to be fake! Fraudsters now create a new profile with a user's name and use an identical profile picture (copying the profile picture is child's play) so that they can give their friends the impression that they are the actual user and friend.
How do scammers get to my friends?
Many users are not aware that their friends list is displayed in their own timeline. Facebook does offer the option to hide the list, but Facebook has hidden it relatively well. (You can see where this option is further down in the article). With such an open friends list, it is now easy for fraudsters to contact all of their friends and tell them this or that story.
What happens if I or my friends fall for a profile like this?
There are hardly any limits to your imagination here.
Theoretically, anything that such a criminal character can hatch is possible. The best known is the so-called grandchild trick. It got this name because it is often used to trick older people at the front door. Here they are told that the son/grandson or daughter/granddaughter is, for example, with the police and urgently needs €100. As a good friend you were sent to grandma to ask her for the money. What still often works in real life at the front door is much easier in the anonymity of the Internet (you don't have to look the victim in the eye, for example). Instead of the grandchild, it's the friend who urgently needs money and can't go to the bank at the moment and maybe the victim would be nice enough to go buy a PaySafe Card for €50 at the gas station and send the transaction number. Another variant is the one from our example above. This approach is usually associated with the Nigeria Connection, but in the end it is pure data collection or advance payment fraud. http://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vorschussbetrug .
How do I best protect myself?
1. Healthy distrust. No matter who contacts you on Facebook, you may find it a little strange, so question the reason for contacting them.
Pay attention to whether the person behind the friend's supposed profile also writes the way the friend normally does. 2. Limit the visibility of your friends list. Actually, who you are friends with on Facebook is nobody's business other than your own friends (preferably real friends).
3. Limit the visibility of your photos and other information. The less information a copied profile contains, the less credible it becomes.
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Notes:
1) This content reflects the current state of affairs at the time of publication. The reproduction of individual images, screenshots, embeds or video sequences serves to discuss the topic. 2) Individual contributions were created through the use of machine assistance and were carefully checked by the Mimikama editorial team before publication. ( Reason )