The new wave of Facebook scam: users are warned not to accept a friend request from Jayden K Smith
Once in a while, evil-minded people start spreading ridiculous rumors and committing cyber crimes. One of the recent scams spreads via messages and warns about Jayden K Smith who is supposed to be a hacker.
Facebook users report that they received a message from a person from their contact list warning that a man named Jayden K Smith sends friend requests to random people. The story tells that he is a hacker who is interested in hacking accounts. Thus, once you add him to your friend list, he will immediately take over your account.
Users usually receive similar messages and are asked to spread the awareness to their contact list as well:
” Please tell all the contacts in your Messenger list, not to accept Jayden K. Smith friendship request. He is a hacker and has the system connected to your Facebook account. If one of your contacts accepts it, you will also be hacked, so make sure that all your friends know it. Thanks. Forwarded as received.”
However, instead of spamming your friends' inbox, you should ignore this message and politely educate the sender about online scams.
Fake hacker warnings are popular type of scams on social networks
It’s not the first time when warnings about “potentially dangerous” friends appear on Facebook. Similar scams were spotted back in 2010. However, recent hoax examples were spotted at the end of the last year and earlier this year.
In 2016, Facebook users were warned that Christopher Davies or Jessica Davies are sending friend requests in order to now user’s IP address. The message urged to copy and paste the message to all the contacts and spread the awareness.
Earlier this year the updated version of the scam appeared. The message warned about Agent Sharon Anderson Terry, Arneca Downing, and the previously mentioned Christopher and Jessica Davies. These people were supposed to know computer’s ID and address.
Such hoaxes might be called classical. It seems that these scams were evolved from email hoaxes. Nowadays the Internet is full of memories that similar messages were sent via MSN Messenger and former popular communication channels.
Adding strangers on Facebook is not a wise idea
It doesn’t matter whether Jayden K Smith, Christopher Davies or John Johnson sends you a friend request, you should never approve it if you do not know him personally. In order to know that you do not need spam friends’ inbox with threatening warnings and cause chaos on a social network.
Indeed, cyber criminals may use social networks for identity theft and steal other personal information. People share lots of personal details on Facebook and other social networks that might be used against them. Thus, such personal life details should stay in the small circle of friends and family members.
Fake Facebook friends might also be used for cloning your profile and attacking your friends. For instance, some criminals might pretend to be you and text your friends in order to get financial help or learn your home address to rob you.
There are numerous ways how criminals might harm social media users. Thus, you should be vigilant and do not trust every single person who wants to be your friend on Facebook.
Linas Kiguolis is a qualified IT expert that loves sharing his excellent knowledge about problems in Windows and Mac operating systems. Linas’ insights often help other team members find quick solutions for visitors of UGetFix site.
