Warning - Facebook account Scam

Facebook, Instagram, Pinterest, Twitter, Linkedin, Youtube, TikTok, etc.
User avatar
Holiday Ray
Posts: 711
Joined: Tue Mar 25, 2008 12:07 am
Location: South West France
Contact:

Warning - Facebook account Scam

Post by Holiday Ray »

Boy, I very nearly fell for this one.

I have just posted on another Topic on the forum here Creating a facebook page for your business about how I was 'logged out' of facebook for no apparent reason, whilst 'liking' someones page, so please go over there first and have a read of my post (10th post down) so I don't have to repeat myself here.

So I was asked to submit my mob phone number so that a code could be texted to me to allow me back in to my account (I'm new to facebook, but understand that this is standard practise (even on their help pages).

Anyway - no text comes through. I put this down to being in a poor reception area. Try a couple times more - still no text.

So I go to the fb help section and after flicking through a few pages, none of which tell me how I can log back into my a/c without providing a mob phone number, I come across a 'help page' which says something along the lines of -

"We will send an email to your account email address advising you how to log back in"

Now I've looked back through my surfing history today and can't see any page that doesn't start with wwwdotfacebookdotcom, so not sure where the page was, but a few minutes later I receive this email -

Hi,

You were asked to confirm who you are because our security systems thought you may not be using your real identity with this account or that you may have multiple accounts. If you’ve already tried to log in at
wwwfacebook.com and followed the instructions to confirm your identity, but weren’t able to complete the process, we’ll need to see other proof of your identity.

Here’s how to proceed:

1. Use a scanner or take a digital photo of a government-issued photo ID (such as a driver’s license or passport), which shows your full first and last name and date of birth.
2. Reply directly to this email and attach the image of your ID to the message.
3. We will confirm that your ID and account information match. As soon as we verify your identity we’ll delete the image of your ID.

Please send an image showing proper identification
right away so we can help you get back into your Facebook account. Please note that we will not be able to process your request unless you have submitted the proper identification. Additionally, not submitting proper identification will result in your request being denied.

We apologize for any inconvenience this may have caused.

If you have any further questions about this process, please visit our Help Center at the following address


http:/www.facebook.com/help/?page=1132

Thank you for your patience,
The Facebook TeamThanks,



So, as I was on the official fb website and I was trying to re-access my a/c it all seemed logical.

So I duly scanned my passport onto my PC attachd it to the email and was about to hit the reply button and then remembered the golden rule

Never Ever send your personal details by email (even though we all provided those to Facebook when we signed up - didn't we !)
So I checked the reply email address which was

info+mvnccxn.aea25hlzkq@support.facebook


Well that clinched it for me - Scam. I had learned on this forum a long time ago that when an email starts with nonsensical characters, chances are it's a scam

Another giveaway up there for me, Is the right away bit - what's their rush ?

Although they cleverly included those links I've highlighted in red (they were genuine links to fb in the email, but I've disabled them on this post).

So after a bit of googling I found that someone else had reported exactly the same email.

Unless anybody here has an alternative explanation for all this it seems to me that my Facebook a/c was 'hacked into'.

I'm obviously going to report this to facebook now, but thought it even more important that you good folks on here get to know about it first.

Be careful out there folks !
Ray
User avatar
Holiday Ray
Posts: 711
Joined: Tue Mar 25, 2008 12:07 am
Location: South West France
Contact:

Post by Holiday Ray »

Well - after all that (above)

I'm none the wiser now as to whether the above IS actually a scam afterall.

I've spent the last hour and a half googling - 'facebook scams', 'logging in problems with facebook' 'facebook account hacking' etc and there seems to be an awful lot of people out there that are not happy with fb.

Most peoples problems seem to revolve around mobile phones, not 'hacking of accounts' i.e

1) Haven't got one - can't sign up

2) Changed their mob No - can't log in

3) Never received a 'text code'

There is a suggestion that there are a lot of fb accounts in 'limbo' because fb doesn't answer emails about how to log back in and resolve the problem and so people are just 'giving up' on their accounts because they can't log into them !

Has anybody had similar problems, or know of anyone that has ?

And more importantly for me - How on earth do I log back in when they aren't sending me a 'code by text' (unless it IS my lack of mob phone signal) and there doesn't seem to be an alternative method to 'verify your account' without one.

Unless, of course, that email I received was genuine - surely not !

Any advice or suggestions would be very, very much appreciated :?
Ray
tavi
Posts: 2578
Joined: Wed Sep 14, 2011 9:07 pm
Location: Algarve

Post by tavi »

Ray, I haven't quite understood the whole scenario - I need to read back again.

But one thing I'm certain of, having been on FB for a couple of years, I have never ever had to scan any government issued ID or even supply the numbers thereof.

DO NOT send your ID, not in a million years.

I have also never heard of such as thing as being sent a code by mobile phone, but I'll check.
User avatar
Holiday Ray
Posts: 711
Joined: Tue Mar 25, 2008 12:07 am
Location: South West France
Contact:

Post by Holiday Ray »

Thanks for the initial response tavi.

What threw me in the first place (If you read back through those other two topics on here), is that it all started when I was just 'liking' peoples pages. I kept getting the Captcha type security boxes appearing - for each 'like' that I was doing - you know the box where you have to copy the code that you see into the box (for security reasons). I'm not sure whether that is normal as it was the first time I had 'liked' anyones pages, as I only opened the account up yesterday.

Then I was asked to 'log back in' for some reason (I definitely hadn't logged out, or even moved away from my PC, as I say, I was literally in the middle of 'posting' lots of 'likes').

When I triec to log back in, I'm asked for my mob phone No to verify my account.
So I don't know if this is usual either ?
Ray
User avatar
Holiday Ray
Posts: 711
Joined: Tue Mar 25, 2008 12:07 am
Location: South West France
Contact:

Post by Holiday Ray »

Just picked this up off a website -

"Facebook is using a mobile phone verification system, the same system as Google or many other important websites. When creating a new account on Facebook, a mobile phone number will be required along with the e-mail. This phone number is very important, losing it, it might lead to losing also the access to the Facebook account.
Facebook will do a random verification after some time to random accounts, they will send a verification code by SMS to the phone number that was used for registration. No other verification options are available like by e-mail or answering to a secret question used at registration.Facebook does not offer direct support by e-mail or a contact form. There is the Community Forum and a few other helping tips here".

Tell me about it :roll:
Ray
tavi
Posts: 2578
Joined: Wed Sep 14, 2011 9:07 pm
Location: Algarve

Post by tavi »

Not sure that I can help much but what's happening to you sounds very dodgy to me. NEVER SEND A COPY OF YOUR PASSPORT ANYWHERE!

As you know, to log in to Fb you just type your email address and password as normal. So even if you had logged out accidentally, this should get you in again without any problems.

if a person forgets their password, they can request a new one. this is sent only by email with a link to reset it. NOT by mobile text.

if you're not sure if the email is really from FB, don't click on the link but right click and COPY the address into your browser.

if a person no longer has access to their original email account, there are other ways to get back into your account (a security question etc) whereupon you can change your registered email address.

when you set up your FB account you are NEVER asked for Passport or ID details.

On my account I have two email addresses, no mobile number, one security question (like what was your cat's middle name?). Your mobile number is, afaik, only required if you are using FB from a mobile phone.

there is a section in the help pages for security with an option to lock your account if it's been compromised, and a link where you can report it.
User avatar
Big Sis..
Posts: 8059
Joined: Mon Feb 19, 2007 5:31 pm
Location: Torrevieja and Norfolk
Contact:

Post by Big Sis.. »

Hi Ray sorry you are having problems Ive never had to do a captcha to 'like' anyone.
Heres a good FB page which gives help with anything you think might be dodgy.......

http://www.facebook.com/pages/Hoax-Slay ... nf&sk=wall
User avatar
Nemo
Posts: 7062
Joined: Thu Aug 14, 2008 10:15 am
Location: Norfolk

Post by Nemo »

Really sorry to hear this Ray. It is enough to put you off the whole thing. The only thing I can verify is that having set up my account recently, I did have to provide a mobile phone number for verification. I was sent a text with a confirmation code and also an obscure email address to use if the code didn't work I guess.
tavi
Posts: 2578
Joined: Wed Sep 14, 2011 9:07 pm
Location: Algarve

Post by tavi »

hmmm,

I've now found a page in FB help where it does say you can only receive a password reset via mobile number or automated phone call.

And yet on another page they say password re-set will be sent by email with a link for you to to activate.

However, the "scan your passport or ID and send it" still sounds v. dodgy.

Hope you've managed to make sense of it Ray.
User avatar
Holiday Ray
Posts: 711
Joined: Tue Mar 25, 2008 12:07 am
Location: South West France
Contact:

Post by Holiday Ray »

Hooraaay :D Managed to log back in ! (One could think that a little sad - that I am so jubilant at being able to log back into a fb account :lol: ).

So I've tried to make an assessment of what went wrong and where ?

I've just gone into my a/c and picked up where I left off yesterday, when I was 'logged out'.
I was in the middle of 'liking' folks' business pages.

This time I didn't have to keep entering text in a (captcha) security box, I was able to 'like' other pages without problem

But then -

A box came up 'Logged out'

I thought - oh no, here we go again. (actually they weren't quite my exact words, but I won't repeat them on here :wink: )

So I signed back in and it was at that point that I got the (captcha) security box appear. I completed that and....... no probs ! logged straight back in and continued, unlike yesterday. I've now 'liked' everyone that nemo has 'liked' from her profile. So that should be most of you - but of course, if I've missed you, drop us a line and I'll duly oblige.

So "how did you get back into your account today" I hear you demand.

Well it looks like part of the problem was the signal on my mob phone :roll: .

I was in 'slumberland' last night at 0045hrs when I was awoken by the sound of my mob phone receiving a message (actually two messages) Yes, you've guessed it - 'the security code'

Then half an hour later two more messages (interestingly enough - the same code as the first two !) I obviously tried four times to get into my a/c during the evening, before I went to bed and was sent a text containing the code on all four occasions (They just came through hrs later :x ).
Didn't have time to mess about with fb this morning, so I used that code when I got back from work this evening.

Another little snippet, for anyone that finds themselves in the same predicament in the future, is that the code seems to relate to your email address, or account, as opposed to a unique code being sent each time.

And another is that when you keep going round in circles entering your mob No 'for verification' and you see "You have tried too many times in a short period of time - please try again later". The time period that has to elapse before you can try again seems to be as follows -

I tried entering the code I received as a text on my phone at about 0715 this morning. The last time I tried before that was about 2345hrs, so about 7.5 hours and I still got the message
"You have tried too many times in a short period of time - please try again later" :cry: .

I tried again when I got in this evening, nearly 10 hours later - and I was able to log in.

So the only thing that remains a mystery is That dodgy email I received asking for a scanned copy of my passport, driving licence, or other international ID (which I DID NOT supply) It's the email that I posted into my first posting on this thread !

I have copied the details of the email to the fb 'Fake email report' page and emailed it to fb, so we'll see if I get anything other than an 'automated response'.

The dissappointing thing about fb (so far) is that you don't seem to be able to actually speak to an 'advisor', or even email one and get a personal response from a human being. They seem to have created a 'help page' for every eventuality that 'they believe', might occur and when you email from those pages, you just get a 'proforma type' very unhelpful automated response, which is no use whatsoever :evil: and as far as I'm concerned that's just not good enough !

It seems to me that, as reported earlier, the only way to 'verify your account' when you're having problems accessing your account, is to submit the mobile phone number that you registered when first opening your fb a/c and then waiting for a text to come through and then imputting that, to be able to log back in again.

Anyway, for now - Problem solved for me !

There's a lot of info on this post/thread and I'm sure many will find it totally boring, but for someone who ends up treading the same path I've just trodden - well Hopefully, it might just help someone out a little - hope so !
Ray
Post Reply