Have you ever received messages or texts from Facebook friends, asking why you suddenly made a second account – despite you not having done anything of the sort?
Facebook cloning is when an account is replicated, often using the same name and profile picture alongside other information. Typically, a clone account will start adding the same friends as the original account to make it appear real – either to elicit some kind of scam or to gain access to personal information and more potential victims.
Seeing that your Facebook has been cloned can be distressing. Which is why we’ve pulled together this article, packed with advice on the steps to take and what to do should you suddenly see your account duplicated.
Let Your Friends Know as Soon as Possible
By far the first and most important thing to do is to put a message out to all your friends, telling them not to accept a friend request from the clone profile.
As part of this, you can also request that your friends take action against the clone account to help you in getting it shut down by Facebook.
Report the Profile
This is something that both you and your friends on Facebook can do, as the more reports an account receives the more likely Facebook is to do something about it – and quickly!
Impersonating another user is a violation clearly listed in Facebook’s code of conduct, meaning that reporting this as an issue if relatively straightforward. Simply head to the account’s profile page, click on the button with the three dots at the top of the profile page, and select ‘Report Profile’.
You will be asked what the report is for, at which stage you need to choose the ‘Pretending to be Someone Else’ option and provide as much information and detail as you can to help back up your report.
Facebook will need to review these reports so don’t expect immediate action; however, the chances are that an account which receives multiple reports will be at least suspended and hopefully permanently removed.
Block the Account
To prevent the clone account from being able to access anymore of your photos or personal information, it’s important to block it.
By doing this, you prevent them from being able to access your friends list and add the same friends as you, take your photos to use on the fake account, and more.
Remove Public View of Your Profile
To help prevent issues like this from occurring, Facebook has rolled out several levels of security and privacy for users to activate on their profile.
Changing the visibility of your profile information, photos, posts, and more to ‘Friends’ rather than ‘Public’ will prevent people who don’t know you from being able to see and track your movements on the platform.
This forms another obstacle against users who may want to take and replicate your personal information.
While it can be distressing to come across an account which is pretending to be you – or indeed someone else who you know – there are steps you can take. And with Facebook geared towards supporting privacy for all users, you can proceed knowing that the platform will do all it can to help.
