On getting a FB friend request from a dead person

Screenshot of a Facebook friend request from
my dead friend Barbara Ballard.

I recently received a Facebook friend request from a dead person.

Many readers will remember the late Barbara Ballard, who passed away in May of 2017.

For years Barbara was the face and voice of radio station WERA when it broadcast from the second floor studios at 120 West 7th Street (now occupied by Harvest Radio).

She also was the executive of the Central Jersey Chamber of Commerce for many years. It was in that latter capacity that I met her and worked for two years with her on the New Audiences for Plainfield project back in the late 1990s.

So imagine my surprise when I received a friend request (see screenshot above) the other day.

What on earth was going on?

Turns out something rather nefarious.

Hackers are able to "clone" the profiles of dead people and lure you into "friending" them.

This then opens your Facebook account to being hacked and to spamming every one of your FB friends and also phishing them, spreading the mess in a viral circle.

So, if you get a friend request from a dead person, do the smart thing at once -- report it to Facebook, then trash it.

'Nuf said?

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 -- Dan Damon [ follow ]

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