RSS
News


Home Page > News > Irish user falls victim to Facebook mugging scam

Blogs


comment on article Make a comment
print this article Print
email this articleE-mail

Irish user falls victim to Facebook mugging scam

Hackers hijack Facebook accounts to extort money from friends

By
KELLY FINCHAM,
IrishCentral.Com Editor

Published Tuesday, August 18, 2009, 11:33 AM
Updated Tuesday, August 18, 2009, 4:28 PM

 

Bookmark and Share


An Irish Facebook user has fallen victim to an international scam whereby fraudsters hijack a user's account and pretend to be the user.

The scammers hack into the user's Facebook account and then message all the friends saying they've been mugged in London.

Dublin Web designer John Braine, 36, said a scammer hijacked his account and then pretended he was John.

John said "Fake John" emailed all his Facebook friends to say John had been mugged at gunpoint in London, was "completely freaked and needed money to pay for my hotel and a flight home."

"While I was scrambling around trying to find the best way of reporting it, the 'other me' was busy chatting to all my Facebook friends telling them that I'd been mugged at gunpoint in London and I was completely freaked and needed money to pay for my hotel and a flight home.

"One friend said the scammer got quite aggressive when she asked him how I/he knew her."

Facebook is treating the scam as a "low volume attack," because an unknown number of people have been scammed.

A Facebook spokeswoman said: “This is a very low-volume attack, affecting a small number of users, but we are concerned about any potential security threat and we’re taking this issue very seriously.”

She said Facebook analysts would disable any such compromised accounts and and try to get them back to their rightful owner.

Well that's all fine and dandy, but has anyone tried actually contacting anyone in Facebook?

print this article Print
email this articleE-mail


Be the first to make a comment.

It may take several minutes for your comment to appear.


Click to learn more from DiscoverIreland.com.
IrishCentral Mobile QR code


Connect to IrishCentral with your Facebook account

or sign-in directly

Welcome to IrishCentral!
Please provide the following information in order to create your account

Username:
E-Mail Address:
Password:
Confirm Password:
I agree to the Terms of Use and Privacy Policy


Welcome to IrishCentral!
All we need is the following information and you will be part of the #1 Irish community in the US

E-Mail Address:
First select a unique username:
Username:
Now choose a password:
Password:
Confirm Password:
I agree to the Terms of Use and Privacy Policy
Thank you!

Just one more step and you will be part of the largest Irish community in America! Tell us a little more about you to start enjoying all the features of IrishCentral.

Additional Information:

First Name:
Last Name:
Date of Birth:
Zip:
Gender: Male  Female 
Country:
Degree of Irishness:
Household Income:
Level of Education:

Subscribe to our newsletters:

The Best of IrishCentral - Daily Newsletter
Special Offers from our sponsors

or
Skip

You can edit your information at any time, just go to "my account" when you're logged in.

Log into IrishCentral with your Facebook account

or sign-in directly

E-Mail:
Password:
 Remember me Forgot my password