Police warn about these friend requests on Facebook!. It’s always best to be careful about friend requests from people you don’t know, because you never know what the person might want. But there are some friend requests you have to be extra careful about. These might be the start of a scam. Especially friend requests with pictures of very good looking men and women should raise some red flags.
Cyber security expert Pim Takkenberg explains that what is going on Facebook right now is a new form of phishing called spear phishing.
Once the cyber scammers are part of your friend circle on Facebook, they’ve got access to all of the information you share with your friends (like your email address and personal photos). They can also send you a private message with a link to malware or badware.
This type of phishing also occurs on Instagram. Are you being followed by someone with a very unusual or sexually explicit profile picture? Cyber criminals hope to catch your interest with this, and get you to view the profile and click the link in the bio. Don’t do this! There’s a chance that malware will be installed on your computer when you do this.
So, always ignore friend requests from people you don’t know. You can also make sure not just anyone can send you a request: go to your Facebook settings and then to “Privacy”.
Next to “Who can contact me?” you’ll see: “Who can send you friend requests?” Choose “Friends of friends”. Do you come across a fake account? Immediately report the profile to Facebook by clicking on the three dots at the top right. Then choose “Report”.