Verify: Is there a scam called Facebook cloning? – W*USA 9

Verify: Is there a scam called Facebook cloning?

WUSA 11:27 PM. EDT May 22, 2017

QUESTION:

Is there a scam called Facebook cloning?

ANSWER:

We can verify this is true. There's a scam called Facebook cloning where scammers pretend to be you.

PROCESS:

We usedWUSA9's executive producer Roberta Petterson's Facebook profile.

We took her public profile, which is what anyone would see if they searched her name on Facebook.

So now a scammer can see her work history and we were able to download her profile pictures.

That's all we needed to create a new Facebook page that pretends to be Roberta. Then we got pages and pages of her friend's names that we can friend request.

After they accept, we can start sending them messages pretending to be Roberta. Messages that say she's in trouble and need money or that she won the lottery but has to pay a fee before she can collect all the winnings.

Here's what you do to protect yourself:

1. Go to your own profile page and click on the tab that says friends. You'll see a list of your friends and at the top, a little tab on the far right that says edit privacy.

2. Click the edit privacy tab. A box will pop up that says "Who can see your friends list?" If it says "public" change it immediately to "friends"

3. Below that, change the other option to "friends"

The less the public can see, the better off you'll be.

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2017 WUSA-TV

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Verify: Is there a scam called Facebook cloning? - W*USA 9