Help! I suspect my Facebook account has been hacked!

[Mr Allen]

Above.

For some bizarre reason I've been getting random friend requests all week from complete strangers, fortunately I know not to accept random requests from strangers with no mutual friends, because of when I worked down at the Lifewise Centre.

I know to possibly change my password and do other security stuff, is there anything else I should look into doing?

 

[Judge]

Looks like a decent enough (and reasonably current) outline if you've been hacked on Facebook:

4 Things to Do Immediately When Your Facebook Account Is Hacked

At least the link is safe according to my security program....

 

[china autie]

Always check your FB privacy settings. From what i have read, FB keeps changing them.

Your rndom friend requests from strangers may also be bots.

 

[Judge]

Always check your FB privacy settings. From what i have read, FB keeps changing them.

Your random friend requests from strangers may also be bots.

Indeed, and not likely "friendly" bots either.

 

[Fino]

What does getting friend requests have to do with being hacked? Everybody gets random friend requests, usually from some sort of pornographic account.

I'm probably just confused about something.

 

[Autistamatic]

@Mr Allen does your FB account state in your account that you are autistic? That may well be the reason. Would you kindly list or maybe screen grab the accounts who are making friend requests?
I have good reason for asking. If you would prefer to PM to keep it off the forum, please do so.

 

[Judge]

Sadly there are any number of interested parties of a criminal nature who will seek to make contact with a person if they perceive them to be impaired in any way. To them we are stereotyped as "an easy mark" to be exploited socially and ultimately robbed in the monetary sense.

 

[NothingToSeeHere]

I'm also not sure what friends request have to do with your profile being hacked. More likely you have just come onto the radar of bots, scammers or friends collectors for some reason. Have you recently made a public post that caught a lot of attention? Have you recently added a 'friend' who has a very large 'friends' list or whom you don't personally know?

 

[Judge]

I'm also not sure what friends request have to do with your profile being hacked. More likely you have just come onto the radar of bots, scammers or friends collectors for some reason. Have you recently made a public post that caught a lot of attention? Have you recently added a 'friend' who has a very large 'friends' list or whom you don't personally know?

Point taken. There's a fundamental difference between one's account and data being compromised through hacking versus receiving a surge of conventional friends requests or emails done with malicious intent. With a hacked account being far more serious of the two.

For all we know information on the OP may have been harvested by malicious bots directly from this website, or many others where personal information is being collected to be used against them in some capacity, but still only manifested in the form of friends requests and emails. Whatever it takes to launch a scam aimed at the OP, but just not through a formal data breach.

In essence, there are many avenues of approach to compromise someone online without actually hacking their social media accounts.

 

[Mr Allen]

Well just as a precaution I just changed my Facebook password.

So contrary to popular opinion I'm NOT daft.

 

[Mr Allen]

@Mr Allen does your FB account state in your account that you are autistic? That may well be the reason. Would you kindly list or maybe screen grab the accounts who are making friend requests?
I have good reason for asking. If you would prefer to PM to keep it off the forum, please do so.

No, except people who know me in the real world,such as old friends I've known for years and family, nobody on there knows about my diagnosis because I don't mention it.

 

[Judge]

No, except people who know me in the real world,such as old friends I've known for years and family, nobody on there knows about my diagnosis because I don't mention it.

I suspect people or entities already harvested such data elsewhere and then applied it to your Facebook account. Which just shows you how invasive the Internet has gotten over time.

Though if this is the case, expect more such encounters while on Facebook. Where your individual account hasn't been hacked as such, but rather is being exploited from beyond that domain.

It's rather sad when such technology can be used in such a malicious fashion where someone can be "buried" with disingenuous inquires often for criminal purposes or simply the result of massive data harvesting in a very short amount of time.

Apart from criminal fraud, the harvesting of data itself is big business. No matter how it is used or abused. I know in a few instances some of the vendors I've done business with have legally sold data on me to other business entities. Where in almost every case I only find out about it long after the fact.

I never encounter such issues online like this, but with regard to unsolicited phone calls I suspect a few of them are other than criminal in nature. Either way, it sucks.

 

[Mr Allen]

I suspect people or entities already harvested such data elsewhere and then applied it to your Facebook account. Which just shows you how invasive the Internet has gotten over time.

Though if this is the case, expect more such encounters while on Facebook. Where your individual account hasn't been hacked as such, but rather is being exploited from beyond that domain.

It's rather sad when such technology can be used in such a malicious fashion where someone can be "buried" with disingenuous inquires often for criminal purposes or simply the result of massive data harvesting in a very short amount of time.

Apart from criminal fraud, the harvesting of data itself is big business. No matter how it is used or abused. I know in a few instances some of the vendors I've done business with have legally sold data on me to other business entities. Where in almost every case I only find out about it long after the fact.

I never encounter such issues online like this, but with regard to unsolicited phone calls I suspect a few of them are other than criminal in nature. Either way, it sucks.

I almost never get unwanted phone calls, if someone rings me on the mobile and I don't recognise the number I don't answer it, simple, if they leave a voicemail, they' obviously want me for something in which case I might ring them back when I have 2 minutes free

I also don't advertise my landline or mobile numbers as a rule, to ensure I don't get unwarranted calls.

 

[Judge]

I almost never get unwanted phone calls, if someone rings me on the mobile and I don't recognise the number I don't answer it, simple, if they leave a voicemail, they' obviously want me for something in which case I might ring them back when I have 2 minutes free

I also don't advertise my landline or mobile numbers as a rule, to ensure I don't get unwarranted calls.

Unfortunately in the US these days there are any number of databases that advertise one's phone number even when it's deliberately unlisted, apart from all kinds of personal information most people would just assume keep to themselves. I could change my number again, but sooner or later they catch up with whatever is current.

Creepy what you can get even for free these days online:

https://www.mylife.com/

In my own case it's easy not to answer any number I don't recognize. My vendors never contact me by phone, leaving only my cousin or brother. Everyone else, 99% chance they're either criminal scammers or telemarketers. The big scam right now are criminals using the "neighborhood scam". Where they use they spoof numbers using the first six numbers of your own phone number to make it look like a friendly, local call. Of course I don't fall for that either. One thing for sure, no one is abiding by the federal no-call list. Signing up means nothing now.

The only ones who ever leave messages are the IRS impersonators...who don't fool me at all. Kind of funny to listen to their pitch though. Problem is, the IRS notifies you by certified mail if there's any kind of problem with an income tax return. They never cold call anyone. And the US Treasury Dept. doesn't send county sheriffs to physically arrest anyone...lol.

I still use nomorobo.com to filter out the obvious scammers, but these days they are using mostly the neighborhood scam which spoofs legitimate numbers of real people. And they cycle them through so they seldom use the same number. But I just let them ring twice and hang up. Either way they never get to me.

The rest, I simply block if they use the same number more than twice. I make it my business to waste their time, resources and livelihood more than they waste mine.