Five million Facebook users have been issued a warning as their accounts have reportedly been "stolen and breached" in a major attack.
The alert has come from Nick Ascoli of PIXM, an anti-phishing browser extension. Mr Ascoli said the scam relates to web pages being mocked up to look like Facebook.
The pages are then circulated through Messenger, and aim to trick unwitting victims into typing in their details, Birmingham Live reports.
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He said: "Once the adversary has compromised the account of a Facebook user, they log into that account – presumably automatically," the expert warned. Fraudsters then "distribute new phishing links to all of that user's friends."
Superintendent Sanjay Andersen, Head of the City of London Police’s National Fraud Intelligence Bureau, said: “Criminals hack people’s email and social media accounts to access a wealth of valuable personal information about the individual, which they can use to commit fraud. This includes passwords for other accounts like online banking. Criminals also use compromised accounts to imitate the victim online and trick their family and friends into sending money.
“One of the most important things that you can do to improve the security of your online accounts is having two-factor authentication enabled. Not only will it prevent hackers accessing your accounts even if they have your password, but it will also keep your valuable information out of the hands of criminals.”
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