F.B.I Issues Warning, beware Of Nigerians. What's New?

FBI Issues Warning Over Friendly Facebook Scams
by Terrence O'Brien (RSS feed) — Oct 6th 2009 at 7:23PM

The disturbing evolution of the 419 scam from e-mails from Nigerian princes to hijacked Facebook accounts is raising serious alarms within law enforcement circles. We originally reported this new tactic in January, but users still haven't caught on. Just last month a Missouri woman was taken for $4,000 by a scammer posing as a friend on Facebook, and the 'Today Show' recently aired a segment about Sister Erma, a nun, whose Facebook was hijacked and used to dupe her friend Debbie Peterson in to handing over $3,000.

The scam starts with spam messages that contain malcious links. People careless enough to click on these links, like the previously mentioned CooooL Video and FBAction messages, are either led to fake Facebook log in pages that steal your e-mail and password, or are infected with a keylogger that captures all of your usernames and passwords across several different sites. Once the scammers have collected this information they begin sending messages to friends and family of the hijacked account claiming to be in trouble -- in most cases stuck traveling abroad. The messages claim that the person has lost his or her wallet or been mugged and needs a loan (of several thousand dollars) to pay off hotel bills.


The scam has become prevalent enough that the FBI saw fit to issue a warning last week about the threat. In a press release, the Bureau cited reports from the Internet Crime Complaint Center (IC3) that the number of hijacked accounts reported has increased dramatically. There have been only 3,200 cases reported since 2006, but we're sure at least as many (if not significantly more) have gone unreported to the IC3. The FBI provided a simple list of safety tips for avoiding becoming the next anecdote on Switched about someone losing thousands of dollars.

And remember our advice -- if you think your account has been hijacked, immediately warn your friends and family. Or if you find yourself on the receiving end of a plea for financial assistance from a Facebook pal, exercise some skepticism and confirm their identity before wiring any money. Then, please report the incident to the IC3. [From: Today Show, FBI, MSNBC]
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SUCKS to be a NIGERIAN!!

Where is our dear Dora when she is needed?? I mean the FBI is hear accusing Nigerian Scammers of being liers, just as SONY did only last month. There ought to be a call to Ban the FBI and other law enforcement agencies for this move. We need to BOYCOTT the FBI for this insult. LONG LIVE NIGERIA!! 

"sigh" this is funny. i laugh    and i cry

How can FBI be boycotted?

Desperados,the options are running out and it is becoming really petty.

here the fbi and other security agents keep talking about nigerian fraudsters true, nigerians do not deny that we do not have fraudsters, that is what makes us better than they are, the fbi are denying and telling the world that the us has no fraudsters,well as a matter of fact they do they are just better at hiding it than we are

Glad you realize that too.