Viral spammy Facebook post warns about account ‘cloning’

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life-sized cutouts of Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg sit on the
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• A new spammy viral post on Facebook is warning users
  about the purported risks of account “cloning.”
• Spoiler alert: There’s nothing to worry about.
• Impersonating accounts is already against Facebook’s
  rules, and is easy to detect — both by Facebook and other
  users.
• Copy-posting the chain-mail post “warning” about it
  achieves nothing, so don’t waste your time.

There’s a new spammy viral post circulating on Facebook — and
it’s all about “cloning.”

Cloning is when a user copies another user’s profile, then uses
the information — such as the profile photo and other personal
details — to create a new “impostor” Facebook account. It is
(obviously) against Facebook’s rules, and a chain-mail-esque post
has been spreading in recent weeks, warning of the purported
dangers of cloning and asking people who read it to copy and
paste it into their own posts, so other users can be warned.

If you’re tempted to spread the message, however — don’t. The
risk from cloning is minimal, and you’re just wasting your time
sharing the message.

One example of the anti-cloning messages circulating is below,
though it sometimes varies somewhat in format and substance.
(This
example was previously also published by Times Union.) It
warns users to be vigilant of cloning, and asks them not to
accept unusual new friend requests:

“Heads-up!! Almost every account is being cloned. Your
picture and your name are used to create a new face book account
(they don’t need your password to do this this). They want your
friends to add them to their Facebook account. Your friends will
think that it’s you and accept your request. From that point on
they can write what they want under your name. I have NO plans to
open a new account. Please DO NOT accept a 2nd friend request
from “me”. please forward to all your contacts.”

So should you freak out? In a word: No. 

Genuine instances of cloning are rare, thanks in part to
Facebook’s security and spam filters for new accounts, and
there’s an easy way to be sure if you receive a second friend
request from someone you know: Just ask them in real life if they
sent it. Worried you’ve been cloned? Just search your
name on Facebook, and if any suspicious accounts pop up, report
them.

“Claiming to be another person on Facebook violates our
Community Standards, and we have a dedicated team that’s tasked
with helping to detect and block these kinds of scams. We have
made several recent improvements to combat impersonation,
including image recognition technology, automation to detect
scams, and improved reporting abilities,” a Facebook spokesperson
told Business Insider.

Facebook hasn’t noticed any recent increase in
impersonations on the social network, they added.

What’s more, even if you do copy and paste the message to
spread the word, you’re probably just wasting your time, because
Facebook’s algorithm penalizes chain-mail messages in its
newsfeed — meaning few people will ever even see it.

“We’ve heard from people that they don’t like seeing the
same post that a lot of people are copying and pasting on to
Facebook,” the spokesperson said. “So if enough people post the
same long post, it could show up lower in people’s News
Feeds.”