Your Facebook account hasn’t been cloned
There’s an old concept called chain mail. There’s nothing actually to it at all, it’s just that a letter contains the message “pass it on.” Thus it gets passed on until everyone has had multiple copies of it. The older versions always used to die out because it cost actual, real, money to send letters. In an age when we can reach hundreds, or thousands, in moments and at zero cost there’s a greater likelihood of that sending on. This is what is happening here with this Facebook message:
A hoax message on Facebook is being spread that warns users their account has been cloned.
The fake warning is being spread due to its chain mail format with the message encouraging those who receive it to pass it on to more users.
No one’s even making anything out of this. There’s no malicious code contained, this doesn’t lead on to phishing or anything. It just makes people panic and the originators get to look and laugh as they do:
The hoax message reads: “Hi….I actually got another friend request from you yesterday…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!”
It’s that pass it on to all your friends part which makes it replicate. But thankfully that is all it does, replicate:
A range of similar messages have spread across Facebook in recent months, including similar posts about making sure that posts appear in your feed. It’s not clear why such hoax messages begin, since there is nothing really to be gained by starting one, though they have been going on for decades in the form of chain letters.
Quite so. There’s nothing to this at all. Other than the flood of messages themselves, nowt to worry about. Just delete them – and don’t, don’t send it on. There’s just something about us humans which makes us prey to this sort of thing. It’s of no matter, merely slightly boring.
Posted: 10th, October 2018 | In: Key Posts, News, Technology Comment | TrackBack | Permalink
