This “urgent” Facebook-driven message warns users to watch out for someone who goes by the name of FACEB HU, because he is a professional hacker. According to the warning, simply accepting a friend request from FACEB HU is enough to allow him to take full control of your online accounts. In fact, claims the message, even if you reject FACEB HU’s friend request, he will still be able to take over your computer. The message advises users to counteract the hacker’s advances by ignoring his friend requests or even by deactivating your account for a time.
However, the claims in the warning are utter nonsense without even the vaguest connection to the truth. No hacker, however “professional” he may be, can take control of your computer simply because you accept a friend request on Facebook. Nor could he do so if you rejected said friend request. This is technically infeasible. Internet criminals may certainly use clever ruses to try to trick you into handing over access to your computer. For example, they may send you a message that tricks you into visiting a fake website that asks you to log in with your account username and password. Or they may trick you into following a link or opening an attachment that contains malware that can subsequently steal personal information stored on your computer. However, just accepting (or rejecting) a friend request from even the cleverest hacker will not, by itself, allow him to take control of your computer. Some sort of file transfer or exchange of information needs to take place.
This supposed warning message is just one more in a long, sorry line of similar – and equally lame – hoaxes that claim that you can give a hacker access to your computer just by accepting a friend request. Any message that makes such a claim is sure to be a hoax and should not be taken seriously.
Other variants of these hoaxes make the equally absurd claim that you can get a virus simply by accepting a friend request.
Passing on such bogus warnings will do nothing whatsoever to help protect you or other users from Internet criminals. In fact, spreading such “warnings” just clutters social networks with even more utterly pointless nonsense. If you receive one of these hoax messages, do not repost it. And take a moment to let the original poster know that the message is a hoax.
An example of the hoax:
URGENT!!! This is deadly serious!!! A professional Hacker is requesting to be friends. His profile pic is him sitting in a Hoodie in front of a laptop. His name is FACEB HU. He has been accepted by many and he has taken FULL control of their accounts even their emails and friends! People have lost everything in their accounts. Even by rejecting him he still gets in; so just IGNORE him or deactivate account for a while! BE careful who you except as your friends. Please REPOST THIS..