Frightening: Facebook users report that they receive friend requests from the dead

Back from the Dead: Facebook users receive friend requests from deceased family members and friends

What happens when you get a friend request on Facebook from someone you know; but isn’t that someone alive in this case? You’ll be stunned, petrified, scared, etc. right?

This is happening to some Facebook users who have reported receiving friend requests from dead friends and family members. While dealing with the death of a closed person and dealing with their Facebook accounts after their death is in itself terrifying and such friend requests come in, it only causes more discomfort for such people. However, even more worrying is the fact that cyber criminals and scammers are using this social media platform to trick people into stealing their money or engaging in other scams.

So how does it all work? Basically, such friend requests are likely to be the result of cloning or hacking scams. For example, the first method involves cloning someone else’s account (in this case, the deceased’s profile) and stealing all the information in that profile, which is then used to set up a new account that is actually controlled by someone else . Also, the other method involves hacking into a deceased person’s Facebook account and taking control of that account.

In both cases, the scammers have complete control over the account, which allows them to send messages while pretending to be someone’s friend. Then the scammer sends friend requests to the friends of the account they have cloned or hacked hoping that some of them will accept the request believing that it is the friend who either created a new account or himself accidentally deleted and properly re-added. Once an invite has been accepted, the scammer can now see information about that account.

The scammer can then spread various types of scams, hoaxes, and scams onto the person who accepted the friend request. For example, the trick known as friends in crisis Scam where a person claims they are stuck somewhere and need money to get out of a problem. Or the fake account can be used to send users links to malicious websites that try to install malware on their computer when visited. Or they are sent to a survey scam that collects personal information by tricking them into filling out intrusive questionnaires. Or the fake account can be used to check someone’s status and other information in order to impersonate them or steal them.

The above tricks and scams also apply to live Facebook users. If you too encounter such a terrifying friend request on Facebook, please send a request to either mourn the dead person’s account (so it’s still visible on Facebook but nobody can log in) or disable it. This request can be made by filling out the contact form provided here

You can also find more information about reporting a deceased person or memorializing an account on Facebook by clicking here.

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