Scam, Scam, Scam – internet scams seem to as prevalent as Tweets from Donald Trump and in 2019, online scams seem to be just a part of everyday life.
From rich kings from afar with 1 billion gold coins to the federal tax office needing your bank details or your local bank needing your credit card number to help validate your identity – there are so many scams going around – and they’re getting more convincing, luring unexpected Australians into handing over their hard-earned money.
In the last 2 weeks, we’ve been receiving calls from people asking us if an email they’ve apparently received from Facebook is legitimate. Looking into it, it’s a rather clever scam as it is targeting Facebook Business page admins. Let me be clear. IT IS A SCAM!
Here it is:
And here is the text:
Thanks for posting on Facebook.
It’s important that we speak with you about recent activity on your account. We have received several complaints regarding the content being posted on your profile.
Because of this activity:
– We’ve temporarily restricted your posting privileges.
To prevent your account from being closed, please confirm your identity !
To verify your identity, we require the following:
- Photo Identification
A clear, readable, valid and unaltered scanned colour copy or photo of one of the following documents:
– The photo page of your passport.
– Front and back of your national ID card.
– Front and back of your driver’s license.
AND
– Selfie photo of you holding the passport or national ID card or driver`s license
– Copy of your medicare id.\
- Attach the supporting documents in reply to this email. The email is to be sent via the email address associated with your Facebook account.
- Once the documents mentioned above have been received, the review of your account may take up to 24 hours. Once completed, you will receive an email confirmation that your account has been confirmed and restrictions lifted.
Facebook Document ID: 35302257
We appreciate your help verifying your account as quickly as possible.
Thanks,
Facebook
Now, this is rather clever as if anyone reading this has ever had to deal with Facebook, you’ll know that the tone of this scam email is very similar to Facebook’s automatic responses. But the scam goes a little too far – asking for a selfie, copy of Medicare card…hmmm, I just don’t think Zuckerberg ’s team need that level of ID.
The other reason why the scam is clever as that it is targeting business page owners. I would suggest that the emails have been scraped by a bot, but it’s the specific targeting to Business Pages owners that is the very reason why so many have fallen for the scam.
So, be warned – don’t fall the latest of the many scams out there in the scary dark world of the net. That said, I wonder if there really is a very rich king from afar that just can’t seem to get anyone to take his money…
