Lots of our friends at St Paul’s are eager users of facebook. Unfortunately, there are a lot of eager Facebook users who are not our friends, and who want to scam or steal information. In this blog post, we’ll describe some basic steps to secure your information (and that of your friends) on facebook. Importantly, you rely on your friends to keep YOUR information secure, so please share this widely!
A. Duplicate accounts and friend requests
Have you ever gotten a friend request from someone that you think is already a friend? Probably,you just assume that they had a problem and have set up a new account, so you confirm the friendship.
Unfortunately, that’s almost never the case. Rather, your friend John Doe is being spoofed: someone else has set up an account in John Doe’s name, with his same profile picture, and is asking all his friends to friend him again. Once you friend him, the spoofer gains access to all YOUR information and that of all YOUR friends, often including birthdays, phone numbers, etc, for future scams. The spoofer may spoof YOU next!
Although John may think his actual account has been highjacked, it hasn’t. Instead, someone has used his profile picture (which is public and can be copied), and his friends list to impersonate him.
There are several steps to dealing with this. First, if you are already friends with John Doe, don’t friend him again! Send him a message or a text, or give him a call, and tell him that someone may be spoofing him. (If you DID accidentally friend John, unfriend John the Second right away!)
Second, if you are John Doe, let your friends know you’ve been spoofed. Tell them not to accept a new friend invitation, and if they did, to unfriend the faked profile. (It will be the one with the fewest mutual friends)
Third, make sure you don’t get spoofed. This happened because John’s friends list was public. That is, a spoofer could look at John’s facebook page, and see all his friends listed. Unfortunately, this is the default setting on Facebook, and you need to take steps to be sure your list of friends is private. Of course, your own information depends on your friends keeping THEIR list private too!
Here’s what to do:
A.1. Go to your timeline (not your newsfeed). You can get there by clicking on your name and photo in the blue bar from your home screen.
A.2. Click on the “Friends” button underneath your cover picture.
A.4. This will open a new window. Make sure that your friends list is limited to “Friends”, or “Only me”. Same for the “Following” panel: choose “Friends” or “Only Me”.
A.5. Click done! You’re all set.
B. Protecting your privacy
You don’t need the whole world to see your information on facebook, including your birthday, phone number, posts, etc. I recommend that you keep your profile as private as possible. Fortunately, Facebook is starting to help you do that.
B.1 At the top right of the Facebook blue bar, there’s an icon of a padlock. Click on that, and Facebook will open a basic privacy page.
B.3 You can also look at a more detailed menu of settings by clicking on the downward-facing arrow.
B. 4 This opens a long menu on the left, where you can explore security and privacy settings individually.
I hope this helps you secure your facebook page and enjoy social media more safely. Let us know in the comments if you have any questions!
–Susan Forsburg
blogmaster & Photographer
Thank you Susan, for helping keep us safe! In case people haven't noticed, there is a fake Peter Bergstrom out there now, so check how many Peter's you have in your friends list.