Social Media “Cloning” Scams

Nearly all of us use social media to stay connected with friends and family. Unfortunately, scammers use social media to connect with us, too. Before accepting a friend request on your social media platforms, keep these tips in mind to protect yourself from scams.

Fraud criminals are adept at copying people’s social media profiles to impersonate them. Indeed, Facebook reportedly shut down more than one billion fake accounts in the third quarter of 2024 alone. Criminals use cloned accounts to reach out to the actual person’s friend list for nefarious reasons: to fake a problem they need help with, to access sensitive information, or send out malicious links to the real person’s friends. To make sure you are hearing from the person and not a clone of that person’s profile, double-check that you are not already friends with them. If not, reach out if you can to the person by phone, email, or text to confirm that the request is real.

Finally, adjust the privacy settings of your account to limit who can see your posts and your profile details. Information like your workplace, school, or hometown can all be used by scammers to build convincing cloned accounts and target your network.

Report scams to local law enforcement. For help from AARP, call 1-877-908-3360 or visit the AARP Fraud Watch Network at www.aarp.org/fraudwatchnetwork.

With about 1 million members in Virginia, AARP is the largest organization working on behalf of people age 50-plus and their families in the Commonwealth. To learn more about how AARP Virginia is working in your community, like us on Facebook at www.facebook.com/aarpvirginia and follow @AARPVa on X at www.X.com/aarpva.

 AARP is the nation's largest nonprofit, nonpartisan organization dedicated to empowering people 50 and older to choose how they live as they age. With a nationwide presence, AARP strengthens communities and advocates for what matters most to the more than 100 million Americans 50-plus and their families: health security, financial stability and personal fulfillment. AARP also produces the nation's largest circulation publications: AARP The Magazine and AARP Bulletin. To learn more, visit www.aarp.org/about-aarp/, www.aarp.org/español or follow @AARP, @AARPenEspañol and @AARPadvocates on social media.