The messages are urgent, and they're filling up Facebook timelines and being sent via Facebook Messenger.
I received several messages like these over the weekend, like a bolt out of the blue sky: "My Facebook account has been hacked, please do not accept my friend request!"
I could tell some of the messages coming in expressed frustration at Facebook and the state of cybersecurity in general:
Other messages I received were more about confusion, which was another major theme from Facebook users:
Is the Facebook account hacked message a hoax?
So what's the real story: Is hacking suddenly rampant on Facebook and nothing is to be believed? Was your Facebook account hacked and sending out friend requests?
In most cases, your account was not hacked. Again, in most cases.
The Louisiana Homeland Security Office has apparently been getting an earful, or eyeful, from Facebook users who have allegedly been hacked, and the office issued this statement on Facebook:
*** POSSIBLE FACEBOOK HOAX****
You can stop forwarding that latest warning from your Facebook friends about being hacked. You weren’t. It’s bogus. And you're just making it worse.
It starts out: “Hi…I actually got another friend request from you yesterday…which I ignored so you may want to check your account…”
Then it tells you to “hold your finger on the message until the forward button appears…then hit forward….”
Your account isn’t sending duplicate friend requests. And you didn’t receive a request from the person you’re forwarding it to. You’re simply doing it because the message tells you to.
DON’T.
Otherwise, you become one of the reasons why the hoax is spreading so fast.
There was a cloning epidemic on Facebook 18 months or so ago. That was genuine. And people still do get hacked.
The message that went viral these past few days is different, however:
It urges you to forward it to “all the people you want to forward to” – which many take to mean all their friends.
So in most cases, this is simply a recycled tactic by cyber troublemakers, kind of a digital chain letter of sorts, that seems believable because of Facebook's recent announcement that at least 50 million accounts were hacked. That's 50 million accounts out of billions of users.
And in this day and age, when we're trying to be extra careful about cybersecurity, many are quick on the trigger because we want to warn our friends. It makes sense.
And it is also a real life example of how misinformation and a Facebook or social media hoax can rapidly spread.
Hacking and cloning and friending on Facebook
So here's where we stand:
- Most of the "I've been hacked" messages you're receiving are bogus; people are reacting to a fake message from "their friend."
- Never accept friend requests unless you know the people you are friending. Even people with pictures can be fake. They can even be bots created by Russian or other foreign intelligence. Russia wants to mess with us— and it just did it again by Hacking Its Olympic Enemies—so it could steal info and use it as disinformation.
- Some people do get hacked, and some cyber bad actors do duplicate or clone accounts with your picture and information. It's nothing personal (usually), but it is big business with money to be made. However, this type of activity is happening at a much lower level than the rampant spread of the latest Facebook friending hoax.
- If you truly believe your Facebook account (or other social media) is hacked or cloned, notify Facebook's help center. Here is the place in Facebook's help center to report a hacked or cloned Facebook account.
In the digital world, it's hard to know what is real on the other end of your device—and what is not. Hopefully this post will help. #CyberAware
