Dunswell: Can you help recover stolen jewellery?
7th August 2018Beverley: Alleged attempted robbery at petrol station
7th August 2018Hull: Befriending Strangers On Social Media Is A Scam Risk
Scammers use false identities on Social Media (for example: Facebook) to make friends with strangers such as you, perhaps they “Just want to talk” or it may be that they claim to be looking for romance.
They can target both men and women.
It could ALL be a lie: pictures, gender, location. All they really want is your money or your friend list so they can build a clientele of people to scam. Plus, they want the credibility of being connected to you so all your friends will think they are legit.
There’s really only two outcomes of you “friending” them and talking with them:
1. They will take your money.
2. They will steal someone else’s money on your good name.
______________What you can do:_______________
– Stop accepting anyone and everyone as a friend and block any of them who start talking nonsense in messenger.
– Get your account setup with 2 factor authentication for ALL of your social media accounts.
– If your friend suddenly sends you something that is out of character – Contact Your Friend Immediately By Some Other Means. Do not use their FB account. If it’s a casual friend who you’ve never really messaged before, block them. Don’t ignore them, block them.
– Stop talking to people on FB who you don’t know or didn’t friend – sometimes they’ll message you without being your friend.
****Read this excellent article to understand more about Social Media Friending Scams****