Facebook Cloning

Our customers are seeing an increase in Facebook profiles being CLONED. (not hacked)
How this works:
Scammers copy a Facebook profile photo and create a brand new account with your name and your profile picture. It’s just as easy as RIGHT CLICK, DOWNLOAD, CREATE NEW ACCOUNT.
Then they start asking for friend requests from your existing friends hoping one of them is asleep at the wheel and “accepts” a second friend request.
Once your friend accepts the fake friend request, they try to push out into more friends from there. Then they start messaging people saying they need funds for something. Like it’s my nieces birthday and I’m out of town, can you pick me up a gift card?
How to fix this:
There is nothing you can actually do to prevent this. Once it happens you can report the profile as impersonating you and Facebook will remove it fairly quickly. (hours). If you ever see this, simply click the three dots in the friend request at the upper right; and report it to Facebook police. You will select impersonating a friend, they will ask what friend from your friend list, then they will email a notice saying they are ‘following up with your friend’. and will take that profile down pretty quickly.
Rather than post “my account has been hacked don’t accept friend requests from me” It would be better to post “I’ve been cloned, please report to FB any new friend requests in my name by clicking the three dots in the upper right hand corner of the friend request.”
This scam is not dangerous to you, it’s only dangerous to your friends who may believe you are stuck in Spain without your wallet and need a $200.00 gift card for your nieces birthday tomorrow.
While it is a pain when this happens to you, it’s generally resolved in a day. Imitation is the highest form of flattery.