The disturbing evolution of the fraud (419) from e-mails from Nigerians who hijacked Face book accounts is raising serious concerns within law enforcement circles worldwide.
Only last month, the agency revealed that a Missouri woman was taken for $50,000 by a scammer posing as a friend on face book. The FBI said the scam starts with spam messages that contain malicious links.
People careless enough to click on these links messages, are either led to fake Face book logs in pages that steal their e-mail and passengers that captures all of their user-names and pass words across several different sites.
Once the scammers have collected the information, they’ll begin to send messages to friend and families of the hijacked account claiming to be in trouble, in most cases stuck travelling abroad. “The messages claim that the person has lost his or her wallet or been mugged and needs a loan of several thousand of dollars to pay off hotel bills,” official stated.
The scam has become prevalent enough that the FBI deemed it necessary to issue a warning about the threat. The Bureau cited reports from internet Crime Complaint Center that the number of hijacked accounts reported has increased dramatically.
“There have been over 100,000 cases reported since but we’re sure at least as many if not significantly more have gone unreported to the centre,” officials warned user of Face book to contact their friends and family if they receive a plea for financial assistance from Face Book pal. “Exercise some skepticism and confirm their identity before wiring any money,” the agency advised.
Daily Sun, Friday October 9th 2009.
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