“Accounts are being duplicated” Facebook warning explained…

A warning is spreading across social media that claims “almost all the Facebook accounts are being duplicated.”

The warning goes on to implore readers not to accept a second invitation “from my name”. The full warning can be seen below.

Almost all the facebook accounts are being duplicated.. DO NOT ever accept a 2nd invitation with my name. I don’t have two profiles!!!!!!
Copy and paste on your wall!!
Share.

The warning is a little misleading in that there is no evidence that this is happening to “almost all” Facebook accounts, but it does describe a real type of threat facing social media users. That threat is called Facebook cloning, where scammers can create a new Facebook profile using your name and profile picture (two pieces of information you cannot make private.) Once that account has been created, the scammer can send friend requests to your friends list, in an attempt to trick them into accepting, thinking it is you.

If a friend request is accepted, any number of scams can then be attempted. We discuss Facebook cloning in our article about it here which we recommend reading for a full run-down on how this scam works.

However, the warning isn’t entirely accurate in its assertion that “almost all Facebook accounts are being duplicated”. There has been no reports of any dramatic surge in this type of scam, or that the majority of Facebook accounts have been affected.

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To help prevent your account being cloned and friend requests being sent to all your friends, consider making your friends list private, which removes the motivation for scammers to clone your account.

A previous iteration of this same warning spread earlier in 2016 and can be seen below –

Accounts are being hacked. Someone will take your profile picture, your name, and then create a new facebook account. Then they ask your friends to add. Your friends think it’s you and accept. From that moment, they can write whatever they want under your name. Please DO NOT accept a 2nd invitation from me. Copy this on your wall so your friends can see and be warned.

Another variant of the warning replaces the word “duplicated” with “stolen” and as such reads –

Almost all the facebook accounts are being stolen. DO NOT ever accept a 2nd invitation with my name. I don’t have two profiles!!!!!!
Copy and paste on your wall!!
Share.

However Facebook accounts are not stolen during a Facebook cloning scam, thus this variant of the warning is a little too vague and misleading.