{"id":97584,"date":"2025-10-24T05:22:00","date_gmt":"2025-10-24T09:22:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/mainestategrange.org\/?p=97584"},"modified":"2025-10-14T06:54:32","modified_gmt":"2025-10-14T10:54:32","slug":"fraud-watch-credit-repair-scams-2-2-2-2-3-2-2-2-2-2-2-2-2-2-2-2-2-2-2-2-2-2-2-2-2-2-2-3-2-2-2-3","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/mainestategrange.org\/?p=97584","title":{"rendered":"Fraud Watch- Social Media “Cloning” Scams"},"content":{"rendered":"
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\"MSG<\/a>
Reprinted with permission from AARP’s Fraud Watch Network.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n\n

Nearly all of us use social media to stay connected with friends and family. Unfortunately, scammers use social media to connect with us, too. Before accepting a friend request on your social media platforms, keep these tips in mind to protect yourself from scams.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Fraud criminals are adept at copying people\u2019s social media profiles to impersonate them. Indeed, Facebook reportedly shut down more than one billion fake accounts in the third quarter of 2024 alone. Criminals use cloned accounts to reach out to the actual person\u2019s friend list for nefarious reasons: to fake a problem they need help with, to access sensitive information, or send out malicious links to the real person\u2019s friends. To make sure you are hearing from the person and not a clone of that person\u2019s profile, double-check that you are not already friends with them. If not, reach out if you can to the person by phone, email, or text to confirm that the request is real.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Finally, adjust the privacy settings of your account to limit who can see your posts and your profile details. Information like your workplace, school, or hometown can all be used by scammers to build convincing cloned accounts and target your network.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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More Topic Resources<\/a><\/div>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n

Report scams to local law enforcement. For help from AARP, call 1-877-908-3360 or visit the AARP Fraud Watch Network at aarp.org\/fraudwatchnetwork<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

<\/div><\/div><\/div>\n\n\n\n

AARP Fraud Watch Network<\/h2><\/div>

Need a scam prevention speaker<\/a> for your group? Click the link to fill out the AARP online form or email me@aarp.org<\/a>.<\/p><\/div><\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Nearly all of us use social media to stay connected with friends and family. Unfortunately, scammers use social media to connect with us, too. Before accepting a friend request on your social media platforms, keep these tips in mind to protect yourself from scams. Fraud criminals are adept at copying people\u2019s social media profiles to … Continue reading “Fraud Watch- Social Media “Cloning” Scams”<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2122,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_uag_custom_page_level_css":"","_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_feature_clip_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[4,218],"tags":[508,506,272,507],"post_folder":[509],"class_list":["post-97584","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-community-service","category-resources-for-granges-and-grangers","tag-aarp-fraud-watch","tag-fraud-alert","tag-grange-communication","tag-scam-alert"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","uagb_featured_image_src":{"full":false,"thumbnail":false,"medium":false,"medium_large":false,"large":false,"1536x1536":false,"2048x2048":false,"post-thumbnail":false},"uagb_author_info":{"display_name":"Walter Boomsma","author_link":"https:\/\/mainestategrange.org\/?author=2122"},"uagb_comment_info":0,"uagb_excerpt":"Nearly all of us use social media to stay connected with friends and family. Unfortunately, scammers use social media to connect with us, too. Before accepting a friend request on your social media platforms, keep these tips in mind to protect yourself from scams. Fraud criminals are adept at copying people\u2019s social media profiles to…","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p1arC1-pnW","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[],"jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/mainestategrange.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/97584","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/mainestategrange.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/mainestategrange.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mainestategrange.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2122"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mainestategrange.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=97584"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/mainestategrange.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/97584\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":97744,"href":"https:\/\/mainestategrange.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/97584\/revisions\/97744"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/mainestategrange.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=97584"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mainestategrange.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=97584"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mainestategrange.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=97584"},{"taxonomy":"post_folder","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mainestategrange.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fpost_folder&post=97584"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}