FBI Issues Warning Over Friendly Facebook Scams

If I'm about to send thousands of dollars to a friend, first of all, we'd have to be pretty freakin tight. Second. The very first thing I'd do is CALL them on the PHONE! " what? You were mugged? omg! Are you ok?" Third make sure I had the correct address on this so called really close friend!?!

I am selling something on the Facebook Marketplace now & so far, 2 scammers contacted me. Since I am an Ebayer, I am used to these scammers, but the ordinary person has not been confronted by the Nigerian cashiers check or the YahooUK parties yet..... If it sounds too good to be true.................. it is.

Are there seriously people out there that do this stuff? I mean, if you are computer literate enough to be on the internet and be on Facebook, then I'm SURE you've heard that there are scams out there.
The obvious thing is to call the person requesting money-What the heck were these people thinking when they just sent out money to whoever they thought they knew? If my best friend asked for $4000 I would HAVE to ask why-and it would HAVE to be in person or over the phone.
I wonder how many people fall for this stuff and are too embarrassed to come forward and say they did it, too.

FBI also needs to get onto these jerk-offs who try to use these blog sites for free advertising of their crap. Just like the ones you see here today advertising their so-called millionaire dating site, etc. Anyone with common sense would understand that if someone was seeking out wealthy people to date, the last place you should look would be a place where people stole space for advertising. The New Yorker, etc. would be a place that would be more logical.

Part of the problem is that the FBI and related agencies are not interested in stopping this crime, only prosecuting the violators after the fact. And clearly such prosecutions do not do much to deter the crime. Part of the problem is the IC3 method of reporting the crime, it is a long drawn out process that does not provide a place to forward the offending messages for action. And worse, it is a black hole; they expect you to report a crime but NEVER inform you that anything was done about it. This makes me speculate that they do nothing with the reports.

My recommendation is simple, contact the ISP instead. Especially if it is one of the more respected provides. Just forward the message, with the headers intact, and they often respond in an hour with a message stating that the offending account has been terminated. Granted, with free accounts it is easy to make another one. But any scams underway with that account will be thwarted.

why do pple use Nigeria to perpertuate scams? Everybody now uses Nigeria in any scam when we know that this scams are done all over the world. They do it in Africa, USA, Europe, carribean, latin america etc. But what baffles me is why many people fall for it despite the all the awareness? People, both the scamers and those scamed should learn not to be selfish and dubious because if these scamers don't get any positive replies from people they will have a rethink.

James Emert, your recommendation for contacting the ISP is worthwhile, but ISPs are notorious for making direct contact next to impossible. For example, how many people know how to notify AOL, or any of the other ISPs, re: comment spam (aside from the "report" button)? We won't get that info easily, because there's a corporate culture that implies insulating mid- and high-level executive management from the public. How well does AOL track and remove abusers who set up multiple comment accounts for keylogging and phishing from these spam websites? We'll certainly never find out, because AOL doesn't want us to lose confidence in them.
Finally, there's something missing from the equation: common sense. How stupid does one have to be not to realize that a web link in a comment post is nothing but trouble?

They're called "Nigerian" scams because many of them use the pretext of an African prince (from Nigeria, or some other nation) to fool the intended victim. They're really a democracy -- google it.

A Nun witha Fb account? WOW!! lol

I WAS THE VICTIM OF THIS NIGERIAN SCAM MONTHS AGO, AT WHICH TIME I REPORTED IT TO THE PROPER FBI OFFICE. WHY, HAS IT NOT BEEN ACTED UPON AND STOPPED ? THESE CRIMINALS HAVE NEVER CEASED TO CONTACT ME, AND STILL DO TODAY. IF THE FBI OR ANY OTHER AGENCY IS SUPPOSED TO BE PROTECTING THE AMERICAN CITIZENS, THEN WHY, WITH PROOF, DO THEY NOT STOP SOME OF THE CRIME?

well i was hacked into and my friends called me to help me out..thank god my friends didn't fall into this..i called another friend to change my password and that night i was banned off facebook and now have been deleted when i was the victim.. hope the fbi catch these folks

Really, how stupid does one have to be. Sending thousands of dollars to... umm.. WHERE? What does it take to make people wake up? If you don't care enough to LEARN how to use it, (FB or the internet for that matter) then you deserve what you get. Maybe we should start issuing licenses to be able to surf the internet! Like driving a car! Maybe you will have to have INSURANCE to do it.. Internet protection insurance! LOL.. now there's a new industry! I mean, come on, until the government controls the ENTIRE WORLD WIDE WEB... you will be exposed to gross misconduct! Keep your kids off the internet, DON'T give out ANY personal information. And don't go bouncing around clicking on links that YOU don't create or find yourself, or that don't come from verified senders.
It just seems so simple to me.
PLEASE take the time to educate yourself.

I get at least 10 emails from everyone from the prince of nigeria, to a widow of a service man. If you figured out this is a scam (its been in the news forever). Here's what i do when i'm not sure of the person sending the email. Instead of clicking on the link - manually type the address - when it's a scam you get an error message saying the address doesn't exist.

Okay so NOTE to SELF.... don't be stupid enough to send anyone money if they post it on facebook...
LOL first of all if I was stuck somewhere my real friends would know about it, my family would know about it ......
secondly.. If I am in trouble I would call you, not facebook it... geesh. I love facebook and all but hey who can send me $100? I would ignore that post and hit the non existant dislike button.

they should do away
with my space
and face book
they are all trash
big insecurity for the people who use them
you dont have to post your life cause your lonely or needing company

Always different countries wanna take from the U.S.

West Africa has become a cesspool of scammers and thieves infecting the internet. If theres ever been a place to test WMD, this is it

the real question is why people continue to fall for these scams,have they not read the internet or seen 20/20 or dateline