Don't Fall for Facebook Account Recovery Scams

Scammers are trying to take advantage of people who get locked out of their Facebook or other social media account. In some cases, scammers are actually the ones sending messages warning people that they need to take action to secure their accounts or to prevent them from being disabled.   

These Facebook account recovery scams aim to get people to hand over their account login credentials, money, or both. Here’s what to know about these schemes and how to avoid them.

How Facebook account recovery scams work

There are a variety of tactics scammers use to take advantage of social media users. All aim to create a false sense of urgency that will pressure potential victims to take action.

In one, scammers try to trick people into paying them to help recover social media accounts when they get locked out of them. The Better Business Bureau has received reports of people who have found companies online that claim to help recover social media accounts they’ve been locked out of for a fee. Typically, once a payment has been made, the companies will request additional payments but won’t provide solutions.

In other instances, scammers will send emails that appear to come from Facebook’s security team or messages that appear to come from Facebook Messenger. The messages warn that there has been a fraudulent attempt to access your account or that your account already has been compromised.  Then, you might be prompted to click a link in the message and enter a recovery code to secure your account. You’ll also be prompted to provide your social media account login credentials, which scammers will steal to hijack your account and use it for malicious activity.

According to BBB, one victim reported receiving a warning that their Facebook account had been compromised and that someone was making purchases through it. To stop the transactions, the victim was instructed to verify their bank account and CashApp login credentials, which scammers used to access those accounts and steal funds.

Signs of Facebook recovery scams

Scammers use a variety of stories in an attempt to scare people into revealing their social media login credentials or handing over payments. However, these scams typically have red flags that are easy to spot. Be on the lookout for these signs.

• Generic greetings, such as “Dear User” or “Attention Account Holder,” in emails or text messages. 
• Vague claims of suspicious account activity rather than specific details about what sort of unauthorized activity has occurred.
• Requests for personal information via email or text message.
• Requests for payment to recover a social media account.
• Links to websites that aren’t associated with Facebook or other social media sites.
• Threatening language or messages with poor grammar and misspelled words.

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How to avoid Facebook recovery scams

If you get a message about suspicious activity on your account or get locked out of your account, take these steps.

• Don’t click on links in emails or text messages warning about suspicious activity on your account. Log onto your social media account. If your account has been disabled, a notice will appear when you try to log on. 
• Don’t pay any service that advertises that it can help recover your account. You can recover your accounts for free using the recovery process provided by the social media site.
• Visit the official social media site’s help page. For example, the Facebook Help Center has a section devoted to fixing a login problem. The Federal Trade Commission has a list of account recovery links for each social media site.
• Don’t share account login information or any personal information in response to emails or text messages that you receive.

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If you believe that someone has gained unauthorized access to your account, the Carefull safe money monitoring service has a Hack Recovery tool that can walk you through the steps to take to limit the damage.

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