“Heads up accounts being cloned” Facebook warning

Warnings are circulating Facebook that claim “almost every account is being cloned” and warns users not to accept a 2nd friend request from a user.

This warning is describing a real threat call Facebook cloning. A number of similar warnings have circulated in the past and this is the latest incarnation. An example of the warning can be seen below –

Heads-up!! Almost every account is being cloned. Your picture and your name are used to create a new face book account (they don’t need your password to do this this). They want your friends to add them to their Facebook account. Your friends will think that it’s you and accept your request. From that point on they can write what they want under your name. I have NO plans to open a new account. Please DO NOT accept a 2nd friend request from “me”. please forward to all your contacts.

In 2018, another variant spread that mistakenly misspelled “cloned” to “closed”

Heads-up!! Almost every account is being closed. Your picture and your name are used to create a new face book account (they don’t need your password to do this this). They want your friends to add them to their Facebook account. Your friends will think that it’s you and accept your request. From that point on they can write what they want under your name. I have NO plans to open a new account. Please DO NOT accept a 2nd friend request from “me”. please forward to all your contacts

While describing a genuine threat, these warnings – like others – are still a little off the mark (especially the 2018 variant, since accounts are not being “closed” at all!) The claim that “almost every account” is being cloned is excessively dramatic and misleading, simply because it’s just not true. Facebook cloning is a real scam, but it’s only likely to affect a small percentage of Facebook accounts overall, especially since you can protect yourself from it, as we describe below.

Facebook cloning is where crooks create a new Facebook account that is a duplicate of someone else’s Facebook account by copying their name, profile picture and cover photo, all of which are public and available to anyone. They then try and trick that person’s friends into accepting a friend request. From there, any number of scams can play out, since the scammer is masquerading as the person whose Facebook they copied.

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To avoid someone duplicating your Facebook account and scamming your friends, we always advise to prevent your Facebook friends list from being public. If you do this, the motivation to duplicate your Facebook account is gone, because the crook can’t see who you are friends with on Facebook and as such can’t send them friend requests.

We discuss Facebook cloning scams in more detail in our article here which we recommend reading.