How My Identity Got Stolen on Facebook and how I got it back

 Not 1 minute ago I just received this from the FaceBook team:

 Thanks for your report.......... ...Our systems indicate that your Facebook account has been compromised by cybercriminals attempting to impersonate you. These criminals often will try to trick your friends into sending them money by claiming that you are stuck in a far away location and in need of assistance.......

 Yah that's how my day has been. But even worse for someone who might have been scammed by the SOB's who took over my account or others. Fortunately it looks like the if the thief's dastardly deeds were foiled.

Let me explain~

This morning I couldn't sleep. It was as if I intuited what was going on. So I got up early and while waiting for the my magic morning black brew I poured yesterdays remnants and "nuked" it to get a jolt before sitting down to this magic TV like box I call work.

 I barely was through deleting my first email before I got a call from a local number. It was like 7:15 am. Why is a local number calling me this early? It was Ami Lynne Carroll.

We had just connected through facebook just yesterday and I had suggested that perhaps we should do a podcast to discuss her unique business. Unfortunately, that was not why she was calling.

She called me and said she is chatting on FB with a person claiming to be me, under my name, my account and he says he was mugged and that he needs money to get out of London.  "Um but I am in Torrance!".

Unfortunately,I found from some Googling that this is one of the top FaceBook scams.. Long story short remember that all these applications we are asked to join may not be a good thing. Run your virus and spy checkers often.

Thanks to all those wonderful people who helped me in getting control back. You showed that there is a community. And in the Cyber community you are from the good side of town. Especially Ami Lynne Carroll, Alex Howansky from Bird View  who also called me, and
Christopher Barnes who showed me how to get back control of the system.

Comments

[Coach Tim SEO]

Just to finish out the post. I guess I didn't tell you the specifics on how I lost it? No idea. Had to be either malware on my computer, or something bad on facebook. As Christopher alluded it may have been bad applications attached to facebook. He had me drop those real fast. I changed my password several times and frankly had it under control way before FB got back in touch with me.

[Denise]

yikes! I was contacted by this person too and have had all kinds of trouble with my computer since then...guess i will take the same steps. Hey I would have given you the money if it was you!
:)) Denise Mitchell

[Coach Tim SEO]

you are so sweet but you gotta know that someone in that predicament isn't going to be facebooking people.

[Ms. Real Estate Signs]

Gosh, I can't believe you went through the same thing I did. They took over my account too.
In my case facebook besides sending me the same email that they sent to you, they took forever to fix my situation..as a result of it, I didn't come back to facebook yet. It gave me too much of headache having my password stolen and then me having to tell over and over again to the people responsable for facebook what happen..bla bla bla.

[Vero Beach Real Estate]

An interesting post. I have been deliberating on whether to use Facebook for my real estate business and quite frankly I am a little hesitant to. This post didn't help inch me closer. But I may have to anyway.

Harold Scott

[Tony in Hawaii]

scary! I often think I have way too much personal info on Facebook. hmmm, come to think of it, so does my blog.

Just had a friend of mine get her gmail acct hacked and weird emails sent out.

i better start being more careful!

[Dominican resort]

Nice article, I have been deliberating on whether to use Facebook for my real estate business and quite frankly I am a little hesitant to.

[Chocolates]

Hi,
Very nice,
In my case facebook besides sending me the same email that they sent to you, they took forever to fix my situation..as a result of it, I didn't come back to facebook yet.

[Happend2findU]

Don't be discourage to use Facebook after this has happened. Facebook has dumped tons of money into their network to prevent things like this.

Facebook is the happening place. However, if you don't want to use Facebook, use Manta.com. (Its a pure b2b social networking site as well as THE go to place for information on millllllllions of companies)