Now a friend request in the name of the deceased

Demand for money in the name of a person who passed away five months ago

Anything is possible in the age of technology. The names of people who passed away in the last few months have started getting friend requests on Facebook. This is being done to financially defraud their friends.

Since Wednesday morning, many received friend requests on Facebook in the name of the contractor Kulkarni. The real game started after accepting a request from a Facebook account that started under the name Dyamangauda Kulkarni. As ‘hi’ on their friend’s messenger

Started. How are you? Where are you? ‘ That was the question.

Do you have Google Pay or Phone Pay soon? ‘ That was the question. As soon as he answers ‘Yes’, he immediately asks D. L. Kulkarni needs ten thousand rupees. The bank refunds to you when it starts after 10 am. You are currently receiving a message requesting Google Pay on your friend’s account 86970972667.

Message to more than 25 people since Wednesday morning.

Messages have been sent to Kulkarni. He actually passed away on May 18, 2021. They watch TV. There were residents at the center. Were reputed contractors. He has also served as President of the District Contractors Association. An attempt has been made to extort money by sending a friend request in the name of a person who passed away five months ago. Many say he died five months ago. Where did you come from? ‘ After raising such a question, cybercriminals have started looking for another geek.

The fraudsters come in many forms with the aim of cheating people of their money. They come in many guises— as a policeman or a soldier, as a charity worker, in the name of customer care employees, and even in the form of people offering friendship or romance.

How to safeguard yourself from Facebook fraud
If you get any message in the name of an acquaintance via messenger asking for money, call the acquaintance on the phone to make sure if the request is genuine. Make sure that the profile of the person asking for money is not fake. If you notice a bogus account, file an ‘impersonation’ complaint with Facebook. If the real account holder and many friends make a complaint, the account will be removed by Facebook itself. File a complaint with the CEN police station concerned.

How to keep your identity safe on social media

Check your privacy settings
When setting up a social media account, make sure that you’ve adjusted the relevant privacy controls so that strangers won’t be able to view your personal details and posts.

To do this, go to the Settings tab on Facebook. Then click on “Privacy” and “Who can see your future posts.” You can set this to “Friends” or “Friends, Except,” which gives you the option to exclude certain people from reading your posts

Don’t include personal information in your user name or email address
Avoid including details in your user name or email address that could be used by fraudsters to piece together your identity.

Don’t accept invitations to connect from strangers

Don’t connect with strangers as this gives them access to this information, which they could use to commit fraud.

Be careful about what you post

Avoid sharing personal information, like your credit card number or holiday dates (you don’t want criminals to know when you won’t be at home).

Change your passwords regularly and dont keep the same password across the accounts

What to do if you are a victim of social media identity theft

For Facebook: You can find Facebook’s online instructions for reporting fake pages here.

If you don’t have a Facebook account but someone has created a fake account in your name, you can report the fraudulent account here.

For Twitter: You can report impersonated Twitter accounts here. Here is the link to file your impersonation report. It’s important to note that you don’t need a Twitter account to report a fake profile.

For LinkedIn: You can also report fake profiles on LinkedIn directly to the social media platform. Here’s the link.

For Instagram: You can report fake accounts created in the name of your business, organization, yourself, or your child here.

For Snapchat: You can report a safety concern — including an impersonated profile — on Snapchat by visiting the company’s safety reporting page.

For Pinterest: Find a fake Pinterest profile in your name? You can report it directly to the social media platform at this link.

With inputs from us.norton.com