Hacked !
That is not how I had intended to start this blog – though I had discussed today over lunch, that I might write an article some time about common computer fraud – and the different types that occur frequently.
I still should do that.
But now, in the evening, I found out that my own Facebook account is hacked. I got the following mail:
= = =
——– Original Message ——–
Subject: Did you log into Facebook from somewhere new?
Date: Mon, 4 Apr 2011 08:53:24 -0700
From: Facebook
Reply-To: Facebook
To: Norbert Klein
Dear Norbert Klein,
Your Facebook account was recently logged into from a computer, mobile device or other location you’ve never used before. For your protection, we’ve temporarily locked your account until you can review this activity and make sure no one is using your account without your permission.
Did you log into Facebook from a new device or an unusual location?
- If this was not you, please log into Facebook from your computer and follow the instructions provided to help you control your account information.
- If this was you, there’s no need to worry. Simply log into Facebook again to get back into your account.
For more information, visit our Help Center here:http://www.facebook.com/help/?topic=account_recovery
Thanks,
Facebook Security Team
= = =
Fraud!
If it were mail from the REAL Facebook Team, the e-mail address should refer to @facebook.com and not to @facebookmail.com
To find out more, I Googled the string “Your Facebook account was recently logged into” and there are a lot of people who wonder what this mail is, and why they cannot access their accout even after c9ntacting the addrss given (mostly not looking at the sender’s fake looking e-mail address, but saying “…I did not travel anywhere…”
I travel a lot and used my Facebook account from many different places and computers – there was never and technically there should be no problem with that. That is what the address system of the Internet can handle.
Until now, I did not go to http://www.facebook.com/help/?topic=account_recovery – either my attempt to clarify things about my account will be intercepted by the people who created the problem in the first place – or the real Facebook Team will tell me “Well, that does not seem to be your account – somebody else is logging in…”
I am still thinking what to do – how to contact the Facebook team.
But then there was more surprise: when I searched my general mail inbox for mail with a header saying that the mail comes from @facebookmail.com, 152 mails are showed up, since 17 February 2011! I had not checked the technical headers of the mail – just looked at the indviual names -there were no problems.
Now I will first post this onto my blog – and later send a copy to all people who kindly had sent me Facebook mail since February.
Please check if e-mail notifications from Facebook come to you from …@facebook.com, or …from @facebookmail.com – as far as I can see, the latter is fake.
Sorry – personal responses to mail I received via Facebook mail will come only after this mess is sorted out.
Any suggestions?
Norbert, I received the same e-mail as you and was also leery of the @facebookmail:twitter .com address. I checked the full headers and traced the IP, however, and it came back as originating from FB. Although I have since gone in and reset my password, I’m concerned because I have *not* lately accessed my FB account from a different computer than usual, and have *never* accessed it from a phone or other portable device. Meaning someone has gained access to my login and former password. Which worries me.
Hi Norbert, perhaps avoid this problem in future (irregardless of if your account was hacked or not) by activating the https option Facebook now offers – not in privacy, but in options related to how you logon.
You might find this article an interesting read: http://www.theatlantic.com/technology/archive/2011/01/the-inside-story-of-how-facebook-responded-to-tunisian-hacks/70044/ Greetings from MX!
Thanks, Erika in MX. I did not know about https and FB. That is why social media are good: to learn from each other.
Norbert,
Facebookmail.com does belong to Facebook: http://who.is/whois/facebookmail.com/
So the 152 emails you’re mentioning are legit. And so is probably the one that triggered this post – which means that your account may have been hacked indeed and that you should use their account recovery feature.
Only way to be 100% sure you’re not falling for fishing is to not follow links you don’t trust in emails but to manually type the url in your browser: just do that and go to facebook.com, from there you’ll be instructed on how to recover your account if you’ve indeed been hacked.
Ghislain
Thanks, Ghislain, for the reference to “facebookmail”‘s owner. But I am still wondering who and why it might be known that I RECENTLY accessed by FB account from a different place. I did this all the time before also…
Hi Norbert,
That is the new feature of facebook for fighting spammer or hacker. as any time you log in, fb records your ip address, location, device to make sure that it is the real you. i used to have that notification once. and i just followed the instruction and handled it.
I had just missed that this is something NEW. Before, I logged in from many different places and I never got this response. OK – NEW – I am learning – thanks for teaching.