A number of Facebook Page admins have reported receiving an email that claims to be from Facebook Security and is trying to get page admins to part with their login details. This is not a genuine email but is part of a phishing scam.
The email claims that many Facebook business pages have been “stolen” recently and as a result Facebook has introduced a new security feature, “Fan Page Verification Program”. The email includes a link to a website that asks you to choose a 10 digit security code as well as asking for details about the page name, URL and password.
The page has the same look and feel as a Facebook page but the URL is not Facebook and this should allow you to immediately spot that this is a scam.
The email tries to frighten page admins by saying that failure comply with the instructions will lead to the page being permanently deleted on 30th May 2013. It also claims that the page has a lot of likes and provides high quality content that qualifies the page for this program. I can only assume that this is an attempt to flatter the page admin so that they are encouraged to click on the link.
Although it is not known the exact purpose of scam it is most likely going to be an attempt to gain personal details from fans of the page by sending them a message that purports to be from the compromised page. The fact that a user receives a request from a page that they already trust may make it more likely that they will then share personal data with the page and this data can then be used to steal an individual’s identity. The other potential purpose of the scam is to post a link on the timeline of the compromised page that will take an unsuspecting user through to a website that has malware in it. Again the fact that the link appears to have been posted by a trusted source to the user is likely to increase the click through rate of the page.
In short if you are a page admin beware of sharing your pages login details and if you are a general Facebook user be careful what information you share with a page.
Social media has changed our lives for the better in so many ways but along with all the upsides there is always a downside or two and this unfortunately is one of them.