Impostor scam cons your Facebook friends

[Jazzy]

Do you know -- really know -- all of your Facebook friends? If not, you could become a victim of a scam that clones your Facebook account to hijack your friends' computers and personal information, according to the Better Business Bureau.

Generally the scam hits people who have loose privacy settings or are open to accepting loosely connected friends -- friends of friends; work associates; anyone that you don't know well.

How it works is simple: You get a friend request from someone who you think is legitimate because they have mutual friends, work for your company, or, perhaps, are an alumnus of your school. And you decide to welcome them into your Facebook world.

However, by adding them to your roster of friends, this new person gets access to your photographs, listing of your other friends and other personal information about you. They use that to copy your photos, status, personal information and create a new Facebook account where they pose as you.

The impostor then starts friending your friends, who would have no reason to suspect that the friend request was coming from anyone but you. After accumulating enough of your unsuspecting friends to strike, the impostor will start doing one of three things: Ask for money -- "OMG. I'm overseas and was just robbed! I don't even have enough to get home!" Or they might start promoting bogus business opportunities, such as work-at-home scams or some multi-level marketing opportunity. But the most pernicious crooks will start sending messages that link to sites that load malware onto your friends' computers.

The malware sites are another story. They entice you to click on a link to see "a funny video of you" or an embarrassing photo. Naturally, when the friend clicks on the link, there's no video or photo. But going to the site allows the site to load malware onto the victim's computer. The most toxic of the malware sites load keystroke detection software into your friends' systems, which can record user names and passwords for all of your friends' online accounts.

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How easily do you accept a friend request?