Okay the truth is that flattery will get you everywhere. And when it comes to this case it was a group of scammers that will use flattery to hijack your Facebook page. Maybe you aren’t aware of the value of a Facebook page with thousands of ‘fans’ or ‘friends’ that come with it. Those friends, relatives and neighbors that have ‘liked’ your fan page show a certain amount of trust in you and/or your cause. That trust is a valuable asset to scammers.

To have a ‘target market’ of people who have a common link through you, or through your page means they can assume your identity and make requests of everyone on your fan page for money or for their information. Facebook has a record of the name, in some cases the phone number, and information about where do you actually live. This information value to those who would take advantage of others through scams.

This is how the scam works. You may get an email or an inbox message that claims that Facebook has released a new security feature to protect Fan Page Owners. The message states that this feature is called the “Fan Page Verification Program”. The message maintains that since so many Fan Pages have been compromised that the only solution is to delete all of them, except of course for the one particular page you own because the content is just so high quality.

The message will continue with a request that you click the link below and choose a ten digit code number that will be your new security code. This new ‘code’ will be an additional layer of security that will be the code for changing anything important on your page. Time, though, is limited because this chance to keep your wonderful fan page ends on May 30, 2013.

The link takes the gullible one to a site that looks suspiciously like a Facebook page where you are asked to enter Facebook login details and your chosen ten digit number. Chances are with a ten digit number, most people will enter a phone number to make it easy to remember. This message will then find its way to your friends and family and the cycle begins again. Remember, don’t click any links or attachments, even if someone whom you know has send it.

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