By REBECCA RUTHERFORD
For the Los Alamos Daily Post

It seems like every other day a new friend of mine is tagged in, or is posting, the “look who’s died” Facebook scam, so I thought it was time for an article. What is this scam? Glad you asked! 

Why would anyone care about your Facebook account? Your account is full of personal info like your date of birth, email address, phone number, etc. that a scammer can grab and potentially use … plus your account is linked to your friends accounts as well, adding potential accounts that can be compromised! 

A compromised Facebook account can lead to so much more, and can be very valuable to scammers. 

How does this scam work? A  scammer compromises the account of one user, then posts using the compromised account and tagging friends.

See example below:

Scam Example

If you ever see a post like this, you will know that your friend’s account has been compromised and it is a scam.  Notify your friend of the compromise via an alternate channel; text them, call them, or message their spouse/partner, do not message them via the compromised Facebook account.  This post is meant to trigger you emotionally with the curiosity factor of…. Who has died? What happened? The scam uses fear and uncertainty to get you to click the link. 

What would happen if you clicked the link they posted? The link looks like a link to a news article about a recent death. If you click, you will likely be taken to a “Facebook” login page mimicking a real Facebook login page. The site will ask for your username and password, and will mimic a legitimate Facebook login page. If you enter them, you will lose your credentials as the information is sent straight to the scammer. If you do not have two factor authentication set up on your account, you will lose access to your account as the scammer steals your information, logs in, changes your password and owns your account. If you have 2FA on your account, the scammer will not be able to get into your account without your authorization via a secondary factor. In other cases, you might be added to a scammer Facebook group account, which can be used to get information to compromise your account. Do not click the link! 

What is 2FA? Two factor authentication requires two factors of authentication to log in to your account, the first is usually a password, the second would be something like your phone number, which would be used to text you a code to login to your account, or maybe an app like Google authenticator, which would provide you a unique login code, or even a physical security token like a Yubikey. You should make sure all your sensitive accounts are protected with two factor authentication of some kind.

So if you do not have 2FA on your account, this is a self-propagating scam, and your account will be used to continue to spread the scam to your unwitting friends and family, which is why we have been seeing so many of these scams on Facebook lately.

Call to action!

• Put two factor authentication on all of your accounts that allow it. Use whatever kind you prefer, phone number, authenticator app, etc.
• If you see this scam, don’t click it … reach out to your friend via an alternate channel, call them, text them, reach out to a partner or spouse. Report it to Facebook as a scam!

If you see the “Look who’s died click here!” scam on Facebook … now you know it’s a scam, don’t click, reach out via an alternate channel to your friend and let them know their account has been compromised. You can also report the post to Facebook as a scam to help limit its reach.  Stay alert, and if you see a scam about “Who’s died now, oh no” etc. keep in mind it’s a scam, and your friend’s account has been compromised!!

This is just a reminder of the importance of two factor authentication on everything, and of being skeptical online. Don’t click, stay safe, and secure your accounts!