Fraudsters on Social Media: The Cloning Menace

This seemingly simple yet nefarious scam has been around for years. Cybercriminals don’t even need to hack into your account but they use social engineering and stalking to target you and your friends.

Here’s everything you need to know about the Facebook cloning scam, how to check if you’re already a victim, and what you can do to protect yourself.

What Is a Facebook Account Cloning Scam?

This type of scam involves using a cloned account to send phishing links, or trick your friends into giving information, or, worse, sending money. They may also use this cloned account forother scams on the social network by exploiting your identity and your contacts.

They replicate social media accounts by using all your public photos and information, making a copy of your existing account, and then adding your contacts. Scammers will pretend to be you and then start messaging your connections.

The more they trick into adding them, the more legit their accounts will look like.

Why Do Scammers Clone Accounts?

When scammers reach out to these contacts, they might send a message with a phishing link they’ll ask contacts to click. And because your contacts trust, you there’s a chance they will click on that link.

These could download malware or lead your contacts to a phony site in an attack called pharming.

A phony site is designed to look like a legitimate site where people normally log in. Scammers use social engineering to convince your contacts to log into these cloned websites. Once victims type in their credentials, these will be harvested by hackers that control the site.

After pilfering login details, they can then hack into people’s accounts, drain their bank accounts, or make purchases using their credit cards. They can also harvest other Personally Identifiable Information (PII) and use these for illegal activities like identity theft.

Other scammers could pretend to be you, reach out to your friends and ask for money.

They’d say something about being in an accident, a particularly sticky situation, or an emergency. Then they’ll ask your friends to send money right away. Because your friends and family care about you and want to get you out of the situation fast, there’s a chance they’ll send the scammers money without thinking.

Facebook Cloning vs. Facebook Hacking

Facebook cloning does not involve getting into your account using credentials they may have acquired through a data leak or another phishing attack.

Unlike hacking, cloning simply means copying your account, then pretending to be you without gaining access to your real account.

They will remain outside your Facebook; they can, however, use a fake version of your account to trick your friends into giving them important information. As such, after a cloning scam, they can hack your friends’ accounts.

How to Check If Your Facebook Account Has Been Cloned

The most obvious sign that you have been cloned is if a friend reaches out to you to ask if you made a new account. This means someone made a mirror copy of your current account and is reaching out to your friends.

If you have security-savvy friends, they’d probably suspect something fishy is going on right off the bat. Others would add the cloned account but then suspect something’s amiss when the scammer sends a message because the message doesn’t sound like something you’d write.

A few of them might get fooled by these scammers’ tricks. Especially if the latter have spent time studying how you communicate so they can mimic how you write your messages.

To check if there’s a cloned account out there, you can type your name on Facebook search. You can also do this on search engines to check what else is out there.

Try variations of your name too because some of them may use a name that’s similar to yours. It’s similar enough for your friends to think that it’s you but slightly different so you don’t find it right away when you use search engines to check.

There’s also a chance the scammers have already blocked you and you won’t find it when you search so ask your friends to find it for you.

How to Protect Yourself From Facebook Account Cloning

Be mindful of what you share with people outside your friends’ list and the platform. Remember that everything you share—photos, private information, friends list—that’s set to public can be seen by everyone on the internet.

Everything you share publicly can be stolen and used to clone your account or steal your identity. So you need to regularly check your Facebook’s privacy settings. The platform regularly updates its security and privacy protocols so make it a habit to check what’s new and if something has changed in your account.

Only add people you know and trust on Facebook. Always double-check if accounts are legit before approving a connection request.

Also, set your friends list to private so scammers can’t target them.

How to Check If Your Facebook Account Is Public

There might have been times when you shared something without knowing that it was set to “Public”. To check what the public can see, go to your profile. Then click the three dots on the top right corner, below your cover photo. Click the eye icon that saysView As .

This will take you to your public profile or “View As” mode. Everything you will see here is information, photos, and videos you’ve shared that’s set to “Public”. This means people outside your friends list and the platform can see these.

You cannot edit your profile while you’re on “View As”. But you can take note of all the content and the dates of your public posts so you can find them later and change their audience settings.

To exit “View As” mode, clickExit View As on the top right corner of the screen.

What to Do If You Find a Cloned Facebook Account

If you find a Facebook clone account, go to the profile of the clone account. Click the three dots on the top right corner of the screen below the cover photo. Then selectFind Support or Report Page .

If you don’t have a Facebook account and someone has made a fake account, you can fill out this form .

Protect Your Friends and Family From Scammers

Keeping your privacy and security settings updated helps protect not just you, but all the people you love too.

Remember that whatever you share publicly can be used to clone your accounts and target your friends and family. Scammers will use tactics likesocial engineering to trick your connections . By being mindful about what you share, you keep yourself and your loved ones safe from scammers.