A cloned Facebook account is a copy, that uses your profile photo and other public information to trick your friends into giving up their information. A cloned account may convince your friends to send them money, collect passwords or other information, or dupe them into other scams.
Account cloning isn’t a hack or an exploit — it’s just a result of clever scammers using your publicly available information to fool your friends.
How do I know if my Facebook account has been cloned?
You can search Facebook for your name to see if there are other accounts pretending to be you, but it’s likely that there’s someone else on Facebook who legitimately shares your name. So while you can do this to look for duplicates, be aware that not every result will be someone maliciously cloning your account.
Before a person can scam your friends, they have to send them a friend request from their cloned account, which can set off red flags for the security savvy. If they accept your friend request without thinking, they’ll start receiving messages that may not sound like you. If a friend tells you they’ve gotten a friend request or a suspicious message, your account may have been cloned.
What should I do if my Facebook account has been cloned?
Facebook doesn’t allow accounts to impersonate others, so if you find a clone account you should report it to Facebook. Just go to the cloned profile and:
Click the “…” icon in the upper right of their profile page
Select “Give feedback or report this profile”
Follow the instructions onscreen to report the account for impersonating you
Once you’ve reported the page, post to your timeline and tell friends not to accept new friend requests from you, and to ignore any messages that might be scams.
Hint Courtesy: South African Police Service