Church Communications

Grand Rising Good People,

Over the weekend there has been reports of an unprecedented amount of hacked and cloned accounts. Hacked accounts is when someone takes possession of your account due to a security breach, weak password, or other nonconsensual means.

We recommend changing your password(s) ASAP if you see any signs of someone being logged into your account. Never click any links in emails or on Facebook to secure your account. Open your web browser and type in the network you would like to change your password on.

If you can’t access your account follow the proper steps for recovery and Facebook and Instagram will usually work with you to recover your account.

What are Cloned Accounts?

Cloned accounts are a little different, this is when someone takes your picture and your name and they set up a new account pretending to be you so that they can trick your friends and or followers into thinking they are speaking with you.

Most of the time you friends will alert you to this behavior by asking if you have created a new page because they may have received a new friend request where you know you already are friends.

This is dangerous because they usually access your messenger account through Facebook and start conversations with people usually ending in requesting money or other personal information.

Be careful. Take important conversations offline, delete messages that have personal information saved in them (copies of your ID, SSN, etc) and try to video chat when in doubt. They can’t pretend to look like you so they won’t pick up block the user immediately and alert your friends.

You can always post a PSA stating that you only have one page and have been notified that someone may be using your picture and name to scam people.

Sharing is caring.

Facebook and Instagram will work with you if you report them to get those fake accounts shut down. It is a very slow and tedious process, you almost have to have a lot of people reporting one account for them to act on it quickly but don’t give up it’s best to just be diligent about reporting accounts that have suspicious activity or that don’t match the person that you know them to be. I hope this helps.

Portia