GOSHEN – There is a new scam going around the Internet – identity theft. Scammers are drafting counterfeit Facebook pages or impersonating actual people using the social medium.
Orange County District Attorney David Hoovler has received “quite a few” of these complaints recently and his office explores any potential criminality.
Short of that, the DA has advice for Facebook users.
“Change your passwords often, check your accounts often and if you see anything suspicious, report it to Facebook and then make a police report,” Hoovler said. “Most importantly we stress to parents that have young children that are on Facebook, that are on Instagram, that are social media, to keep an eye on where your children are going on social media, where they are going, who their friends are.”
In one recent local case, a Thompson Ridge woman’s rarely-used Facebook page was duplicated with scammers stealing her identity and contacting people on her friends list suggesting that they call a phone number to collect sweepstake winnings after they send a money order to them.
