If someone is victimized, it could damage their reputation and cost thousands of dollars in lost advertising revenue. This is what happened to Dale Berry, the owner of a preschool English academy in Japan who got his Facebook account hacked by fraudsters. Hackers ran fraudulent ads using his account, draining his business of cash and left him with a bad reputation.

Hackers first target people who have weak passwords, such as “qwerty” or “password.” They then impersonate a friend to ask for a code to reset the password. They then make use of a security feature that allows people to add their friends as trusted contacts in the event they lose their password, and can ask those trusted friends to provide the one-time password needed to gain access to the account.

The purchase of stolen login details is another method hackers can gain access. Recently https://www.app-ink.net/avast-and-its-main-security-options the cache of 26,000,000 Amazon, LinkedIn, and Facebook passwords were uncovered available on the dark internet. Many of these were leaked through custom Trojan malware that infiltrated millions of Windows-based computers between the years 2018 through 2020.

Users can stay safe from attacks by constantly making sure that the address bar on their browser is Facebook and not another website. It is recommended that users use a password comprised of letters, numbers and spaces. Never use it for other email or social media accounts. They should also be sure to check their notifications for activity regularly. Twitter for instance, sends out a notification whenever there’s an unusual login from a new device or location.