Facebook deletes fake profiles used by criminals

Safety features of the website Facebook are working to remove some fake profiles that would be used for fraud against the social network users. The crime involves the theft of user passwords and use their profiles to borrow money from friends of the victim.
According to The Guardian, the site was seriously challenged in recent weeks. Called "419 Fraud", the number of people affected would still be uncertain. Even the FBI sent an alert message to loa social network users on thousands of crimes which occurred recently in the website profiles.
In a statement posted on the official blog of the social network, Alok Menghrajani, the Facebook software engineer warned users about the crime and stated that safety equipment registered an increase in the number of occurrences of fraud. "While total number of people affected is small, we take seriously any threat to security and we are redoubling our efforts to combat fraud, "wrote Menghrajani.

In this scam in particular, the login information of individuals are stolen through phishing and then their accounts are visited without permission to borrow money for the friends of the victim. The criminal visit Facebook as if he were the owner of the account and talk with friends through chat or message explaining generally that is lost in another country and need money. He then directed the victim's friends to send money through money transfer companies like Western Union.
Facebook has prepared a special page safety alert, which provides hints and tips to prevent your users from becoming victims of virtual criminals anywhere. The social network also asks people to report any unusual or suspicious activity in their accounts.
"We improved our systems to better deal with this type of fraud and we are striving to make sure that we will get respond to these scams as they change," wrote Menghrajani. "Meanwhile, our security team is working with suppliers of e-mails and other specialists to identify criminals.

Some of the links contains fake accounts, which, if given by unsuspecting users click, they can get viruses on computers, leaving them vulnerable to the actions of hackers, says the Guardian.