Sheriff’s Office offers advice to prevent Facebook scam

They say "imitation is the sincerest form of flattery," but that doesn't apply to Facebook scammers... Isn't it frustrating when your friends start to message saying, "Hey, I got a friend request from you" and it wasn't you?

Did you know there's a pretty easy fix to this?! Just make your friends list completely private. If your friends list is not public or viewable to other Facebook friends, the scammers/account duplicators don't know who to send fake friend requests to in their attempt to try and scam your real friends. If your friends list isn't viewable, your account is much less attractive to the scammers.

To make your friends list private on a mobile device:

1. Tap menu on the bottom right of Facebook

2. Scroll down and tap Settings & Privacy. Tap on Settings.

3. Scroll down to Audience and Visibility section. Tap How People Find and Contact You.

4. Tap Who can see your friends list?

5. Select the audience of people you'd like to have access to your friends list. (We recommend “Only Me”)

Scams and Phishing schemes are proliferating. Banks, Sheriff’s office and many other organizations offer help to keep one from losing assets and privacy from these systems. Don’t hesitate to ask for assistance.