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Facebook as a social media platform is replete with so many fake accounts, many of which are identities of others.
Scammers are in the business of impersonating people on Facebook, stealing people’s name and profile pic and sending friend’s request. Most times, these scammers block the real person so they are not aware their identity has been stolen.
After reporting some Facebook profiles I know very well have been hacked, with Facebook replying the profiles follow the community guidelines, it becomes important to inform on how to avoid identity theft on Facebook.
Identity theft is the deliberate use of someone else’s identity, usually as a method to gain a financial advantage or obtain credit and other benefits in the other person’s name, and perhaps to the other person’s disadvantage or loss.
While Facebook is yet to make any tool available for users to identify fake profiles, here steps you can take to avoid identity theft on the social media platform.
Face recognition settings
It is important Facebook users turn on this feature so that the platform is sensitive enough to recognize you in photos and videos others share.
To recognize whether you are in a photo or video, Facebook compares it with your profile picture, and photos and videos that you are tagged in. This lets Facebook know when you are in a photo or video so that the platform can alert you when your photo or video is used.
First, you will need to open your settings. To do that on a desktop computer, click on the upside-down triangle in the top-right corner and then guide your mouse down to hover over “Settings.” Click on it.
That will open up this page, where you will want to find the “Face recognition” icon.
Clicking on it will open up a new page where you can click on “Edit”, turn the feature on by clicking “Yes” and “Close”.
Use two-factor authentication
Two-factor authentication adds an extra layer of security to your account to prevent other people from logging in to your account.
With two-factor authentication you log into your account using a code from your phone as well as a password.
All you have to do is edit this feature in settings and follow the process through to get your account secured.
Mind you, if anyone calls you to request you give them some code from your phone, do not oblige.
Also, along with setting up two-factor authentication for your account, you can as well, turn on the feature to “get alerts about unrecognised logins”. This feature allows you to get an alert when anyone logs in to your account from an unrecognized device or browser. You have to option to get the notification on the Facebook app or on Messenger or through the email address attached to your account.
You can do all these as well on the mobile app using your mobile device.
Always save changes after following each process.
Leave any further questions in the comment below and I will promptly respond.