Your Facebook account was not hacked! Someone just created an account with your full name, copied some of your photos and sent out friend requests from your list of friends. The intruder duplicates your Facebook account to send private messages about get rich schemes and other engineered fraud that involves stealing money from members.
If you check the URL (your Facebook web address), you will notice that it is different from the real account, your account. See my URL and the fake accounts that the person created below.
https://www.facebook.com/FrankJovine (real account)
https://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=100088198782713 (fake)
https://www.facebook.com/frank.jovine.9 (fake)
My account was duplicated nine times since being a member. As you can see above that the real account includes my first and last name with no numbers, hyphens, or other special characters. This is how to tell someone created an account with your name.
Always remember to create a post warning your friends and family not to accept friend requests from you as your account was duplicated. Having your Facebook account duplicated can pose a risk for your friends and family if they fall for a fraud that can potentially cost you money and identity thief.
Most of us on the giant social networking site are well aware that this can happen to anyone at any time. There is nothing you can do to prevent this type of intrusion. Facebook needs to engineer a way that will prevent account duplication. I do not see that happening anytime soon.
The good news is that one of your friends (connections) will advise you about your Facebook account being hacked via messenger. Just remember it is a duplicated account and not a hacked account.
I want to bring up another growing issue on Facebook with ads. Be extremely cautious about ads as most are very misleading and can be fraudulent. This happen to one of my cleaver friends who was taken for $79.99 but he was able to recover that money. See his post below.
“I admittedly fell prey to a couple knowing full well I was about to be defrauded. I purchased one of the car ports for 79.99. An umbrella arrived. PayPal and the FBI got my funds back quickly.” – Patrick S
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