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The Truth About Facebook Email Scams

Facebook SecurityFacebook email scams are becoming increasingly more common today. The sudden increase in phony emails by spammers and scammers is not be unconnected with the rising number of Facebook users around the World. In spite of this, I was still quite surprised to have received two of such emails in one week! It does seem like the perpetrators of this scam are becoming more sophisticated as the emails appeared to be quite convincing judging by their low standards. The “From:” fields were perfectly spoofed to include “Facebook.com”, “Your Facebook Team” and “Facebook Assistance, while the subject read “Facebook Password Reset Confirmation NR.15831 and  Facebook Password Reset Confirmation! Customer Support“ respectively. However, the messages must have been sent through some automated e-mail spamming system as they were not addressed directly to me. Unfortunately, many Facebook users may have already fallen victim of some of these malicious attacks however, the information provided in this article could still be very valuable to other Facebook users who are yet to come across these emails.

How to Detect Facebook Scam Emails

Detecting Facebook scams is quite similar to detecting other similar scams online (Read How to Detect Yahoo Fraud) and protecting oneself from future malicious attacks. The first thing users should note is that no one is exempt from receiving suspicious emails and notifications. In fact, there is currently a notice on Facebook Help Centre warning against these suspicious messages. Facebook scam emails can be easily detected by their characteristics. Please take note of the following.

Example_1 of Facebook scam email

Example_1 of Facebook scam email

  • Messages are usually urgent.
  • They include a request to update your personal information or supply new personal information.
  • Contain misspellings or use bad grammar.
  • Emails usually have attachments or links which you are always asked to open. It has been proven that most of these links and attachments contain trojans, viruses and unsuspecting readers can be easily made part of a botnet (Read about botnet attacks here).

How to Protect Yourself Against Facebook Scam Attacks

The most important point to always remember here is that Facebook will NEVER send you a password as an attachment. Users who keep this important point in mind are more unlikely to fall victim of Facebook scam attacks. In addition, the following are other ways that Facebook users can help protecting themselves against these attacks:

Example_2 of Facebook scam email

Example_2 of Facebook scam email

  • Do not read or click on suspicious emails.
  • However, if you happen to click on a suspicious email, do not download any attachment or click on any links.
  • Delete all suspicious emails immediately from your inbox and warn others. For example,  you can warn your friends by using the “Bookmark and Share” link at the end of this article.
  • Never give your password away to anyone, under any circumstances (Read how to create a complex password that cannot be easily guessed).
  • Ensure that all your security programs are active and up-to-date.

How to Contact Facebook

Facebook are always happy to hear from users especially on security-related issues. To contact Facebook, click on “Help Centre” at the bottom of your page and select the appropriate contact form or answer to your question from the list of topics in the Help page.

Talking Point

Have you ever been a victim of a Facebook scam? You can share your experiences with our readers by leaving a comment below.

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9 Comments

9 Comments

  1. Kate

    March 29, 2010 at 5:05 pm

    The bottom line on any email based scam is that the end user has to be educated. They prey on peoples desire to listen to authority, or to solve a problem quickly.

  2. Domain name registration

    March 30, 2010 at 9:19 pm

    Is Facebook doing anything to stop this email scam attacks, and thanks for educating us on this issue.

  3. Pingback: received truth

  4. kylie

    April 4, 2010 at 6:18 pm

    I got a letter saying i won $50,000 but to send money for approval fees. The letter had very bad grammar and misspelling.They asked me for personal info like full name and full address.

  5. Sammy Launius

    April 13, 2010 at 6:32 am

    Facebooks pages are secured. They only send e-mail as you have opted in your privacy setting. Always look for header info in e-mail to know if it is a spam e-mail

  6. Facebook Marketing /Promotions

    May 6, 2010 at 1:50 pm

    Hey very nice blog!!

  7. David

    April 25, 2011 at 12:55 pm

    It’s sad that after numerous warnings on email scams, some people still easily fall into it. I know some who were victims of the email scams that informed them that they have won a huge amount of money and they need to send money via western union to claim the total amount of prize. I guess some people are too greedy that’s why they fall into it. The best thing to do is to delete these scam email immediately if you know that you did not join any games/lottery.

  8. Colin

    April 27, 2011 at 4:08 pm

    @David: my thoughts exactly. A lot of people continuously fall into this trap, but most of them are due to ignorance and lack of technical savvy.

    The popularity of Facebook just ups the chances that more people would fall victim to email scams. Be sure to check out your privacy settings periodically. One can never be too sure.

    Colin

  9. Janis Gagliardi

    August 7, 2011 at 4:13 pm

    Most facebook users must have received these spam mails, these spammers are everywhere. Thanks admin, for posting some of those helpful tips on how to detect the spam mails. So far, the urgent mails I received were non spammy ones but will be more careful henceforth.

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