Paula loses her Facebook account after receiving a private message from a friend

Finland, Europe Brief News – The scam victim also fears his friends will lose money to an “incomprehensibly good scammer.” Restoring your Facebook account has proven to be laborious.

Messages from the scammer: Hello, can you give me your mobile phone number? Thank you! I entered the competition, sending a text message. If you receive a message with a code, send it to me. Okay?

In the first step of the scam, the scammer asks for the victim’s phone number.

Paula, 67, received a message from a relative on Sunday asking for Paula’s phone number. Paula gave it because the message came via Facebook Messenger directly from a relative who doesn’t have a phone number.

“I really thought all the time I was talking in Messenger that I was talking to this guy. But it was that scam all the time,” Paula says.

Paula has learned to be careful with messages in foreign languages ​​and written in a bad Finnish language, but it was not enough this time.

“I wondered if it was a good Finnish language. It was somehow such an incomprehensibly good cheater,” Paula says.

Paula does not want to appear in the story under her last name because of the matter’s sensitivity.

“My sister is younger and works on the machine, but she also went to the wire. Even the mini said it was a super fine scam. Even young people have gone to the lever here,” Paula is amazed.

Because the ultimate goal of the scam is to get money from the victims, Paula fears for her friends.

“Next week is retirement day, and I have a terrible concern about how old grandparents can go then,” Paula sighs.

Paula is not alone with her experience, as the Cyber ​​Security Center of the Finnish Transport and Communications Agency warned (you will move to another service) that this scam was widespread last week.

First, the victim is approached on behalf of a friend whose Facebook account has been hacked. The scammer asks the victim for a “participation code” delivered to the victim via text message. After giving the victim a phone number, the scammer asks the victim, for example, to take part in a joint contest where they can win money.

The scammer hacks the victim’s Facebook account. It requires the victim’s phone number and a verification code sent by Facebook, which the victim thinks is the participation code.