**I am sharing this with friends and family as well, so disclaimer ... this is not about you. I've stopped following people to lessen my chances of being cloned or duped but you need to know this too**
If you use or have used Facebook at all, you know about hacks and clones/duplications (dupes). I've been asked about the differences and I am happy to explain. I've helped others to fix their accounts or I've done it myself. The thing is, you have to listen. I know it sounds silly ... or maybe even mean.
If a kid climbs a chair and touches the stove eye, you kiss their little hand and you explain fire is hot. If they sit in front of a light socket with a fork, you rush in and tell them, "No, no" and explain why that will cause an undesired reaction. I tell, on average, 1-2 people a month they've been duplicated. Sometimes the same people. I post or explain in detail. I thought it might be easier if I put this here and then link to it somewhere. Hopefully it won't be needed, but if it is you can pull this post down from the shelf, dust it off and see if it helps.
Now I'm sure you're all wondering why I have that image there. What does it all mean? I'll tell ya. THIS IS HOW THEY GET YOU.
I will not give you the name of the "person" who posted all these images. This "person" has a profile on Facebook and this is what they do. All day, every day, they post images of Jesus, an 11 month old baby with amputated legs, a lovely young woman or two (the two on the right are actually the same young woman) and they will type things like, "Beautiful Baby <3 <3 Please Type Amen & Pray for Him :)", "I cried when I lost my second hand in and accident...Now people no longer like me because they say that I'm ugly and lame. So please tell me the truth, am I still beautiful___???? YES/NO", "Do you think I'm beautiful without my arm, Don't go without pressing like and comment a amen if you're not embarrassed of me" and "My Husband says i can't get many likes because I'm disable and ugly. If you think I'm beautiful please hit a # Like and Type AMEN".
If you've seen these and shared them, you are a beautiful, loving, caring ...sucker. And I'm sorry to be the one to break it to you so hard.
I've covered their faces because 1) I would swear on the soul of my mother that not one single one of those women or the parents of that baby know that their photos were stolen and used in such a way on the internet and 2) I refuse to be a part of what they are doing.
This "person" has a profile. Likely one they made up or belonged to someone and they changed the name ( we'll get to that ). This one just happens to almost be the Spanish translation of eliminate cancers, but changed slightly to not be detected. We shall call him Scammer. Regular, every day, good people like you saw that this "person" shared an image. We'll use the baby one for our example.
This young baby boy has fibular hemimelia, a birth defect where part or all of the fibular bone is missing. Foot and knee deformities are common. This baby boy is almost 3. I will be emailing his parents with the link to the scammer on FB when I'm done here. While it's a beautiful thing that a complete stranger would ask for prayers for a beautiful baby, the problem is what you're not seeing. First of all, when you click like, heart, any emoji or share a photo, Scammer now has your first and last name. He can mouse over your name and see what city/state you live in. It might say "message" so he can message you. He can click your name and go to your page. If you haven't fixed your privacy settings, Scammer can see all of your friends, all of your shared photos, maybe even your cell number, the names and links to your kids, sisters, parents pages. They have you. Scammer can click the baby picture, save it to his hard drive or phone, use any paint program to put Thumbs Up= AMEN, <3= Pray and everyone who wants to say AMEN or pray will click and add their names.
Legitimate places like newspapers, magazines, etc, they won't bother to do that. They don't want to steal your info and can be sued. Scammer, he doesn't care. He wants likes, information, etc.
That baby boy had his photo stolen and used so Scammer could get follows. The first image shows you that BUT when you shared the photo you shared from a regular guy, a guy with a selfie, a guy who had a job as a Publisher at "MyLikes". Or maybe you didn't look at all. You said "aw" and hit send or like many many others commented prayers for the baby. (Again, it's wonderful to pray for them, not against it...just warning you of the dangers.) They can steal your baby's photos, your sister's selfies, your mom's pics after an accident ... anything you've posted.
What you didn't see was Scammer's profile. He has over 774,000 following him. (While I was looking at images and searching for their owners he gained nearly another 100 more followers...in minutes. OH, and yes, I am trying to find the owners of the other photos.) He works for a place that doesn't exist but it's a hint at what he's after. Scammer clearly wants you to email him for advertising. He's willing to steal photos of people from their pages and slap your company logo on it for a fee. The photos of "him" likely aren't even his. The more I scrolled the more I saw. Scammer has his own webpage and it's his name from FB. He wants you to visit his page for riveting articles like 12 Oral Positions That Are Far Better Than Doggy Style.
This is where Cloning / Duplicating comes in.
You liked, commented, shared and they have your name. They have your profile picture and your friends list. They'll open a new page with your name and harvest your friends. Then they will do the same to then. Eventually they'll either post stuff on the new page or change the name once they have all your friends and they'll never know why they're on this person's page, they'll just be there.
If you have been cloned / duplicated, REPORT the other person's page. If your friends get requests and they KNOW it's not you, have them REPORT the other person's page.
Hacking is when they have your email address, phone number and/or password. They log in to your account and change things so that you can't get in. You have no recourse but to contact facebook and jump through 1000 hoops for them to believe you are you.
I would love to say the internet is a safe place. It is not.
I would love to say 100% of the people who want you to share things are truthful. They are not.
If you see an image you like and would like to share, put it on your phone/computer and drag/drop it into a message to send. If you can't trust the sender or page, DON'T SHARE IT. Make it a new message. You can send 100 messages+ a day with funny things, inspirational messages, etc but please be careful what you share, like, comment on. Look into the page/person you are sharing from, go to their page to make sure they're not a scammer.
Tips:
If they have hundreds of thousands of likes/shares
If they have a name that makes you look at your computer with one eye squinted
If they have their email address on their front page selling their "services"
If their page has nudes, sketchy links to pages that likely have a virus attatched in some way...
or
If they have ANY image with no one's name or information on it linking to them but are asking for likes, shares, amens, prayers, etc
PLEASE DO NOT Share, Like, Comment! You are putting yourself and anyone on your list at risk.
This also goes for some survey/quiz. I love a good quiz. BE CAREFUL what site you go to. Be careful what you allow to have your fb login information too. If they post as you now, they can do it for anything else (it's why people see game stuff all the time...they can post whenever). AND especially quizzes that have something that compares you to someone on your list, fines your "stalker", your best friend, your look alike, your mate, 4 people who would fight zombies with you, whatever ... This allows them complete access to your account and your friends list.
Tighten your FB security every so often. Change passwords. Be Safe.
That's all I can think of for now. If I've left anything off, please feel free to comment!!!
