Scammers Use Facebook Details To Cold Call Potential Victims

Facebook have revealed that scammers have been able to abuse its phone number and email search facility to harvest people's data.

Until just this week, Facebook allowed people to search for their friends' profiles by typing in a phone number or email address.

But it said scammers had abused this function, and used it to link phone numbers and emails to people's names and profile information.

An attacker could type in any phone number - even one they had made up by guessing - and link it to a person's profile. Often this would reveal their name, location and other profile information.

By linking a phone number to personal details, a scammer could telephone the victim and address them by name. They could pretend to be from a bank or other organisation.

Ever wondered how a cold caller has got your details? It is believed that criminals have been harvesting Facebook profiles for years by abusing the search tool.

TOP TIPS

• Remove your phone number from Facebook - there is no real need for the site to have this information
• Update the privacy settings on your account to control which people can access your private information
• Think about how much personal information you have on Facebook, or other social media sites
• From Monday 9th April, Facebook will show people a link at the top of their News Feed so they can see what apps they use — and the information shared with those apps. Be sure to go through this and stop sharing data with apps which do not need it - to prevent potentially similar activity from occurring.
• Read more of our advice on how you can be social media savvy in our article.