Facebook money scams on the rise

by Darren Allan

Facebook has said that it has noted an increase in scams designed to con users of the social networking site out of their hard earned cash.

The scammers obtain login details of a user’s account via phishing sites, and then log on as that user to post updates and messages to friends.

These run along the lines of cries for help due to being stuck abroad with no money, and requests to wire over emergency funds. We suppose that’s a bit more believable than Nigerian millionaires…

Facebook’s Alok Menghrajani, a Software Engineer on the site integrity team, commented: “While only a small number of people have experienced this type of scam on Facebook, we are committed to constantly improving our systems and implementing additional measures to better respond.”

As well as working to improve security and close down scammer’s accounts, Facebook is urging its user base to exercise some extra caution, and check out the Facebook security page for tips on how to avoid being conned.

The page is located at: http://www.facebook.com/security