Know your friends? Beware the latest Facebook scam
Filed under: Technology, Fraud, Relationships, Identity Theft
Two weeks ago, the Facebook.com status message for a guy named Bryan Rutberg was changed to read "BRYAN IS IN URGENT NEED OF HELP!!!" Simultaneously, his friends were e-mailed a plea for cash that said he had been robbed at gunpoint in the United Kingdom. Bryan, of course, wasn't in the United Kingdom. He was at home in Seattle, in bed. (And even if he were in the U.K., he'd be very unlikely to be at gunpoint -- they're too hard to obtain there.) But his friends didn't know that. They thought he was really in trouble, and unable to get to a phone. A couple friends called him anyway, and Bryan realized his Facebook account had been hijacked. But when he tried to log into his page to set the record straight and warn everyone, he found that the scammers had locked him out so they could pose as him to beg for money in chats. By the time Rutberg was able to get back into his Facebook account, one of his friends (a Microsoft employee; please, no jokes) had wired $1,200 via Western Union to London.
The jig would have been up a lot earlier if only Facebook had a phone number to use to alert it to the profile hijacking. But it doesn't. Facebook forces members to use e-mail channels for privacy concerns. Rutberg had to e-mail Facebook to sound the alarm. But as we have all learned, e-mail, which is supposed to deliver quick communication, usually just encourages companies to procrastinate.
The scam has been hopping around Facebook since last November. All it really takes is for someone to get ahold of your password, which they can easily do by sending you an e-mail that looks exactly like one from Facebook. You click on that, you try to log in, and then the thieves will have all they need.
I myself have had my Facebook profile hacked, but fortunately, the only damage was a Wall posting, purporting to be from me, to many of my friends, proclaiming my love for them and listing a website for them to visit. My name was merely used for spam, not for a scam, and for a while, the victims got some warm-and-fuzzies thinking of my affections.
Those of us who are on Facebook invariably have a subset of friends who simply refuse to join us. Like vegetarians or people who don't own TVs, people who aren't on Facebook are likely to brag about the fact the instant conversation swerves anywhere near the topic.
Lots of the anti-Facebookers I know cite the same concern: Privacy. If they load lots of personal information on their profiles, they reason, then they'll be open to identity breaches. But it turns out that the biggest Facebook scams don't involve skimming your personal details, but simply hijacking your friends and pulling their heartstrings.
I suppose the only way to be immune is to be unpopular. But I end with a side note to my friends: If I'm ever in trouble, I will never use Facebook to let you know.
Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)
2-02-2009 @ 10:28PM
Heather said...
Wow, this story is really chilling! How would you be able to explain to your friends that trust you that the facebook "you" is not the real You? I guess the only way to do it would be to tell people ahead of time that you use facebook just for fun, not urgent communication.
This makes me want to make sure I contact my friends and make sure they know that this kind of mesage is not one I'd use facebook to send!
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2-03-2009 @ 3:13PM
aUDUBONER said...
i CAN THINK OF BETTER THINGS TO DO IF i GET YOUR PASSWORD, tONI. >:)
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2-03-2009 @ 8:36PM
Janice said...
I am a victim of this. I supposedly through Facebook IMing asked all of my friends who signed on to do me a favor. Since this person was in my actual facebook account they knew all about me and was able to actually convince my friends/family that I really needed them to wire money to a friend of mine in London because I was stuck at work. But I was supposedly going to give them the money back when I got done work. Only 1 of my family members actually followed through and went to Western Union....luckily she found out it was a scam prior to this idiot getting the tracking #. So, she was able to get her money back, but I could have gotten my ass whooped by a bunch of po'ed people when they came to collect the money I supposedly borrowed. This person was asking for $500 from each of my friends.
After all of this, guess what facebook did. Banned me from their site because I violated their contract. I wrote to them about what happened and well, haven't heard a word back and remain locked out of my account. Oh well! After what happened not only am I creeped out, but I think I'm better off not having anything to do with the site.
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2-03-2009 @ 8:48PM
Dave said...
...Just one more reason I don't bother with Face-book or MySpace...too much scamming going on in those sites!....And neither one is properly managed!
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2-06-2009 @ 4:21PM
chris said...
419 scammers at it again as usual.Never send money western union or moneygram overseas.
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2-04-2009 @ 12:51PM
larry said...
Is this for real or are these people really that stupid ???
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3-03-2009 @ 10:34PM
vtpics said...
I had the same thing happen only they stole 2 of my email accounts, I was awakened one morning by the phone ringing off the hook! So most of my friends and family are either to smart to fall for it without checking to see if I'm really traveling or home, or they are broke and can't spare any money. My financial planner though was just about to send the money, I called him and he was relieved to know the truth, so was I! I had read this similar story on MSN about 2 weeks ago so I knew they would be looking to get into my Facebook account so i quick changed the password for that and salvaged one of my other email accounts. I had previously linked the accounts that were stolen and pulled all the emails from both of them including contacts. I quickly emailed all and suggested they don't open the email from me, if they did change their passwords immediately just in case and that I was not in Europe and that I did not need money. It took MSN 24 hours to reply then I had to prove they were my accounts to get them back. Anyway I had to run the gammut of putting up a fraud alert, police and FTC report. The Police Chief tells me they won't do anything cause these guys are in Canada or London! How can that be, I can't imagine that either country would not want to prosecute.....
I don't know whether to stay in facebook or get out. I did find out all the worms that are out there, and the holes in programs we all use like Adobe Acrobat 8 and earlier, Flash Player and IE 7. So what does the Virus program really do for you? And why don't MSN and Facebook have an emergency number so you can report and either get your account closed or snag it back.
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