Even though you may be fearful that somebody has hacked your Facebook account today, it’s likely just another round of the decidedly aggravating “Friend Request” Hoax that is apparently extremely aggressive today. A Berrien County Judge, several business owners and everyday citizens, and yes…even yours truly…have been hit again today with the ridiculous message that is worded in this manner:
“Hi….I actually got another friend request from you which I ignored so you may want to check your account. Hold your finger on the message until the forward button appears…then hit forward and all the people you want to forward too….PLEASE DO NOT ACCEPT A NEW friendship FROM ME AT THIS TIME.”
An alternately worded but very similar version reads like this:
“Hi….I actually got another friend request from you today…which I ignored so you may want to check your account. Hold your finger on the message until the forward button appears…then hit forward and all the people you want to forward too….I had to do the people individually. Good Luck!”
The reality of the matter is, folks, the message is just a hoax according to Internet authorities.
Fortunately, you can easily avoid falling for the scam by simply ignoring any message like those above whether you get them by Instant Messaging, Facebook Messenger, or some other chat method.
Reality is that the people sending it out didn’t really even get friend requests from the people getting the forwarding message. They’re mostly just sending it to all their friends because the message instructs them to forward it.
The problem stems from the fact that the people blindly forwarding the message are not aware that it is simply a hoax, and are fearful that, in fact, their Facebook accounts have been hacked and/or are really sending out duplicate “friending” requests to their other friends.
Inasmuch as true account cloning has happened, authorities say that the hoax becomes considerably more believable because we all, on occasion, have actually gotten a duplicate friend request from a cloned account.
Here’s where you can typically determine the difference between the scam and a truly cloned account according to Facebook experts: the stilted verbiage of the hoax as opposed to a personal message or a post on your own Facebook Timeline to advise of such a duplicate response.
Essentially, there’s no need to do anything about a message like the canned stuff chasing the Internet today except delete it or just ignore it completely. When the suggestion calls for forwarding to all the people you want to forward to, and you do, your exacerbating the issue by cascading the message deeper into the ether.
Pay no attention to that message behind the Messenger curtain. It’s not real. You haven’t been compromised, hacked, or cloned unless there’s proof that an actual cloned account is present. Help end the scam by refusing to forward and ignoring the hoax.
