Summary
A common Facebook fraud involves a scammer creating a duplicate user account to look like yours. From the duplicate imposter account, friend requests will be sent to people listed as your Facebook friends. This page describes what you can do to prevent this or respond if it happens.
Prevention
The only way to prevent or hinder the ability to mimic your Facebook profile page would be to hide your profile page from public view. However, most people want their social media to be public. Having a publicly viewable profile helps friends recognize it as the legitimate account.
Even if you hide your profile, someone could find a photo of you and other public information about you, and create a Facebook account to mimic you.
When someone creates one or more of these fake accounts, you may not even know it’s been done until a friend notifies you.
Hide Friends List
While you can’t prevent the creation of an imposter account, you can prevent or slow the spread of this problem. If you hide your friends list from public view, then a scammer won’t be able to easily contact your friends with fraudulent communications. This precaution will help protect your friends.
Be Careful When Accepting Friend Requests
If you receive a friend request from someone you know, make sure you don’t already have a established connection with that person on Facebook.
Also, check the profile of the request. Are there many posts going back years, or just a few posts.
When was the profile created? Scams and fraudulent requests usually come from accounts that were just recently established.
Beware of Hacked Accounts
You may receive an unusual communication from a friend’s legitimate account, but if the account has been hacked, the request could be coming from a scammer. Use an alternate trusted method of communicating with your friend to confirm, such as calling them on the phone.
Learn More
For further information, read “Facebook Messenger Suspicious Requests from Friends.” [View]