We receive friend requests on Facebook every day. But what happens when those requests come from someone who has died?
This has happened to some Facebook users, who reported receiving friend requests from their deceased friends and family members. The death of a loved one is a very distressing experience in itself, and with such incidents, things become even more difficult. However, what is more worrying is the fact that scammers and hackers are using this social media platform to trick people, steal money from them, or carry out some other scams.
Friend requests from the dead are likely the result of eavesdropping or hacking. For example, one method involves hijacking someone's account (in this case, the deceased's profile) and stealing all of their profile information, which they then use to set up a new account that is actually controlled by someone else. Another method involves hacking into a deceased person's account to take control of that account.
They then send friend requests pretending to be someone's friend. Once the invitation is accepted, the scammer can view that account's information.
The scammer can then send all sorts of malicious information to the person who accepted the friend request. For example, they can claim to have a problem and ask for money. Or the fake account can be used to send links to malicious websites that will try to install malware on their computer, and more.
The above tricks also apply to Facebook users who are alive. So if you encounter such a scary friend request on Facebook, you can submit a request to either make the missing person's account inactive (so that it is still visible on Facebook, but no one is able to log in to it) or to deactivate it. This request can be made by filling out the contact form given here.
You can also find more information about how to report a deceased person on Facebook by clicking here.
