FACEBOOK users have been warned about another fake email doing the rounds that hacks into your account.
Phishing has long been a problem, especially for a platform as popular as Facebook with billions of users across the world.
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Scammers are using a devious trick to make people panic and inadvertently give up their username and password in the process.
It comes in the form of an email which claims you’ve breached copyright rules.
Apparently from Facebook, the email says you must act within 48 hours otherwise your account will be deleted.
There’s a link to appeal – and of course, as an innocent user, you’re tempted to go through with it and say this is all wrong to keep your account.
Hackers use a mix of fake sites and the real site to carry out the nasty scheme.
You eventually get through to a One Time Password Check, which fails.
It’ll offer you an alternative way to authenticate, which pings back to the main site.
“These fake Facebook ‘Violation’ notifications use real Facebook pages to redirect to external phishing sites,” experts warn.
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“Users are advised to be extra careful when receiving false violation notifications and not to be fooled by the apparent legitimacy of the initial links.”
One way you can tell if it’s a fake is from the email sender.
If it’s a long, odd sounding address which doesn’t use any of Facebook’s main web addresses (like facebook.com, fb.com or meta.com) it’s probably not real.
The same goes for the web pages that ask you to login.
If you’re unsure, the best solution to check is to go directly to Facebook.
By that we mean, closing any windows you have open, typing in facebook.com yourself and logging in that way.
You should then see any issues raised in your notifications.
More to the point, Facebook owner Meta doesn’t just delete people’s accounts like this anyway.
You usually get a fair few warnings.
And even if someone has done something bad, it normally results in a temporary suspension first.
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This post first appeared on Thesun.co.uk
