JACKSONVILLE, Fla. — Action News Jax Investigates an online scam that could affect anyone with a Facebook account – and it even happened to our law and safety expert.
It's called spoofing, or copying someone's Facebook page and passing it off as their own to steal people's information.
The FBI regional office said this type of identity theft is on the rise, and spoofing is one of the reasons why the bureau's seen social media complaints quadruple over the last five years.
“I never thought it would happen to me,” said Action News Jax law and safety expert Dale Carson.
Carson is an attorney, former FBI agent and a Facebook user.
His niece recently sent him a message saying, “I think someone is pretending they are you.”
Carson said someone made an exact replica of his Facebook page. Others tell Action News Jax they went through the same thing as well.
“I was sort of shocked,” Carson said.
Carson showed us how the person pretending to be him was reaching out to his real friends and family.
“They are trying to get information about you or to scam my friends with the idea they should invest money,” Carson said.
Facebook officials sent us a statement, saying these cases are not a result of hacking and personal information is not being stolen and that people can report fake accounts to have them removed.
However, Carson said the people copying your profile block you, so you may not even know you’re a victim to begin with.
But if you get a message like this like Carson did warning him, he said this step is critical to protecting your profile and online friends
"The magic words are 'Warning to all: I have been spoofed. People are pretending to be me. If you receive a friend request, please don't respond," Carson said.
LINKS:
-Learn more from the FBI about spoofing
-Report a spoof account to Facebook
Cox Media Group
