Don’t Get Hacked Yakima Valley! Use These 2 Rules to Stay Safe

Social media can be SO much fun! It's super easy to connect with people from all over the world. You can learn new things and share cool things but it's also a breeding ground for con artists and dip****!

Keep Your Eyes Peeled

We spend so much time perusing different groups and sites that occasionally we can fall into traps where someone messages us, someone, we know but haven't heard from in a while, and we get caught up. We give away a bit too much information and boom! We've been hacked! It wasn't actually our friend, it was someone posing as our friend. Stay vigilant but also know, you are not alone, it's a rare occurrence that someone's never had an issue with their accounts.

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The Latest Scam

Something I have been noticing recently is random people reaching out to my friends in the comment section of my posts. I should have taken the most recent screenshot but I am sure there will be another popping up shortly so stay tuned.

Basically, they will post something like, "I just love what you are saying and we don't know each other but I was hoping to connect. For some reason I am having trouble friending you on Facebook, would you friend me?" Or something to that effect.

I have taken to calling them outright on the page, which has been interesting because they actually respond, acting like they don't understand why I am calling them out for being a FAKE ACCOUNT. Then I report their profile and block them. I feel this is a missed step by a lot of people because if there aren't enough people reporting the profile, Facebook doesn't deem them an issue.

How to Spot a Fake

Rule number one when checking your friend requests for anyone, even the ones you know. Check the mutual friend's list, occasionally your friend has been hacked and before they have been able to send out a don't accept a friend request, you just assume they created a new profile and accept, that's when you'll get a message from them.

Rule number two is going onto the profile of any person and scrolling through their posts. If they have just a picture and no friends, red flag. Even if they have a few mutual friends, if they have just a few photos, your friends weren't paying attention and accepted. Don't be like them, don't accept random friends with very little on their profile. Chances are they are a duplicate profile of someone you know or they are using stolen pictures from someone else.

It always makes me laugh when it's a military uniform and they are divorced, you scroll through and again, just a few pictures and then the date they were born. All fake and not something you need to be dealing with.

What Should You Do?

Always report them and always block them. We will never be rid of scammers but we can help save someone who wasn't paying attention or worse, your sweet Grandparents from getting taken advantage of!