Most of the time Facebook accounts aren't hacked, they're cloned. Someone has created a new profile using your name and photo. They then send friend requests to people on your friend's list and send weird-looking messages.
My friend Lisa's account was cloned a few days ago. Like in most cases, she found out from a friend who received one of those friend requests.

How do they get your photo? It's easy. Just a right click and save. This North Carolina mom discovered someone set up an account using a photo of her children she posted to Facebook.
"I was shocked, my mouth dropped I couldn't believe what I was seeing."

So it's easy. Bad guys don't have to go through Facebook to set up a new account. I found thousands and thousands of logins for sale on the internet along with friends lists for not much.

Have you ever wondered what the bad guys hope to gain from cloned profiles?

They're hoping someone clicks on a message. An odd message like this one could contain malware to steal information or ransomware that encrypts everything on your computer. They'll ask for money in Bitcoin to get it back. Usually several thousand dollars. What happens if you don't have the money? Some cyber thieves offer to un-do their dirty work for free if you agree to send the ransomware to three other people.

Here's another tactic they use. This friend whose profile was cloned, soon received some "helpful" comments, telling her and others to contact someone who can recover their account. My friend didn't know the people leaving the comments, so they are likely behind the cloned account. I did some digging.
Who is this person? Gold Clinton? She has no Facebook friends. Only a couple of posts. I searched for the image online and found out it's actually a photo of Tricia Cusden, an author of a book about beauty secrets. The cyber-bad guys copied and pasted her photo to create a fake account to advertise another scam.

That's the bad guy's MO, method of operation. How do you protect your account and what should you do if your Facebook profile has been cloned? We'll talk about that next time. You don't want to miss it. That's What the Tech? I'm Jamey Tucker

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