Criminals use this trick to shamelessly rip off Facebook users!

As our cooperation partner Watchlist Internet warns, criminals create fake profiles on Facebook and pose as the boyfriend or girlfriend of possible victims. They then try to get the phone number of those affected so that they can make purchases using their mobile phone bill. Anyone who falls into the trap will lose their money.

In order to get money from Facebook users, criminals take over other people's Facebook profiles or imitate them using their profile pictures and names and then send friend requests to the contacts of the stolen account. If you receive such a friend request and accept it, you will shortly receive messages like “Hey, give me your Hanndy number?” If you ask why the number is needed, you will be given a reason such as “for Whatsap” or similar.

If you give the fraudsters what they want, i.e. give them your own phone number, you will shortly receive an SMS asking for confirmation of a payment.

MIMIKAMA
Source: Watchlist Internet

If you reply “YES” to the text message, you confirm the contract and the criminals can make purchases at your expense.

How can you detect attempted fraud early?

When making friend requests, make sure they are genuine. For example, if it is a person who is already in your contact list or whose name is only slightly different from that of a real profile, decline the request. For example, you are friends with “Clara Musterfrau” and suddenly receive a request from “Klara Musterfrau”. If the fake profile writes you a message, you will often notice that the writing style does not correspond to that of your real acquaintance and is heavily incorrect.

If a contact asks you for your phone number and you immediately receive a text message asking you to confirm a purchase with YES, it is clear that this is a scam.

How can you protect yourself?

Pay attention to your privacy settings on Facebook so that people who don't know you and aren't friends with you can find out as little information about you as possible. This makes identity theft for fraud attempts much more difficult. If you discover that your identity has been stolen, inform friends and acquaintances of a possible fraud attempt. If you come across a fake profile on Facebook, report it to Facebook if possible.

Also have your mobile phone number blocked for WAP and web billing as well as value-added services. This prevents fraudsters from making purchases using your phone number.

The Internet Watchlist recommends:

Do not accept Facebook friend requests from people who are already in your friends list, as it is probably a fake profile. We also recommend that you do not send your phone number to anyone who you are not sure what the number is for.

Pay attention to the privacy settings on Facebook. Tips and guidelines can be found at Saferinternet.at .


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