I’m specifically referring to things like the ads for cheap sunglasses that I’ve been seeing for what seems like over a decade now and the more recent “look who died in an accident” video links that three of my elderly aunts have had on their accounts in the last year. Who is “hacking” these accounts and what are they gaining from it?
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Very few “hacks” are ACTUALLY hacks. They are usually one of two things:
– A cloned account. You comment on spam in Facebook and it brings your account to the bad guys attention. They then create a new account using your profile photo and send friend requests to the friends you have on your account. They then wait. In the future, when your friends forget what they did, they will send a scam email with a sob story asking for money. Your friends think it’s actually you and send money.
– A cross site API call with an open Facebook session. You go to a “bad” web site. Sometimes even just encounter a “bad” ad. That action then includes called on the site which call APIs on Facebook, using the open session to Facebook you had open 20 minutes ago. It sends messages thru Facebook messenger on your behalf, usually to send your friends to a scam website.
While I would caution “hacks” ARE possible, that’s not what people usually encounter.
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