So the other day we had my wife’s Facebook account copied by a scammer. For us it was obvious that the account was copied … but how can you tell? Here is the list of ways we noted that the account was fake.
Not a lot of content in their profile feed
Most scammers who use this technique are playing a numbers game. So they are going to create as many profiles as they can. This means they are not going to take the time needed to write posts. There will be a few images copied from the public section of the profile and that is it.
Question any profile that has limited posts.
Not already on your friends list.
I had scammers copy my Stepfathers Facebook account a few times. I got a strange friend request from my Stepfather. Looking at my friend list I noted that he never unfriended me and the account was still active.
A common trick scammers will use is to add as many of your friends to the list before they start the scam.
They talk about money right out of the gate.
This is common. They will mention some kind of deal they discovered or that they are in need of money. This should always raise alarms (even if they are who they say they are)
Scammers who are pretending to be a friend will try to avoid any personal conversations as that will tip you off that they are not real. So their best chance is to start talking about money right away.
Odd hours of activity
Most scammers are in different parts of the world. So they will often be active while the real person is asleep. So if you get a message from someone at 3:45 AM.. There is a good chance something is fishy.
They don’t know you!
While they can do a little bit of research about who you are .. they do not know the relationship between you and the person they have copied. In my case having my stepfather talk about the money he wants to give me via bitcoin was a red flag (as our relationship was strained over money issues)
Start talking about something that happened to someone else or that is very unlike you. If you get comments like “That is great” or simple answers there is a good chance they are a scammer.
“The Baby ultrasound went well did you get the photo?” (No baby here…)