LANSING, Mich. (WILX) – Every day, many of your Facebook friends have their accounts hacked or cloned, and it can seem like some people are more susceptible to being hacked than others.
There are reasons that make some Facebook users an easy target.
We’ve all got Facebook friends who post warnings that their account has been hacked and “do not accept friend requests” from me. They’re likely making a few mistakes that make it far too easy for hackers to find them and compromise their accounts.
Sharing a phone number. You may not even remember giving Facebook your phone number but if it’s shared publicly, it makes you vulnerable to hacks and identity theft. It may be why you’re getting so many spam texts and robocalls.
Same with your email address. Change them both to “only me” and share your number and email address only when you choose to.
Another mistake is having too many Facebook friends. Hackers tend to target people with lots of friends and followers. Fake accounts send out millions of friend requests every day. Check your friends. If there are any you don’t know, block them.
I guarantee you’ll see followers you don’t know and didn’t know who were following you. Here’s why: if you get a friend request from someone and you ignore it, they still become followers and can see your posts, photos, reels, and stories as you post them. Some of these followers will be fake. Guaranteed. You’ll see your followers under your profile and Friends tab.
If you see any suspicious accounts under followers, block them.
And go into security settings under the login, and make sure Facebook Protect is on. These are advanced security settings to protect accounts by monitoring logins from new devices and locations.
Would you walk up to a stranger and hand out your phone number, email address, pictures of the kids, and where you work? Probably not. so make sure you’re sharing your Facebook information only with your friends.
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