Avoid attacks through messages on Facebook
This is not something that is exclusive to Facebook, far from it, but there is no doubt that it is one of the most popular social networks and therefore it is more likely to affect users. We may receive a message from another contact, even if it is a family member or friend, and that message contains some fake link.
Analyze the content of the message
These tricks that we show are basically common sense and the cousin of them consists of simply seeing the message content. Only with that we can already have important clues as to whether it is a threat or it may be something legitimate. If you get a message alerting you to an error, telling you to click something to fix a problem, or anything else you see that doesn’t make much sense, there may be something behind it.
Typically attackers will look for immediacy. They will cause the victim to have doubts and see the need to open something. “Look how good we looked in the last photo!”, “Are you the one who appears in this photo from yesterday?”. Things like that, in general, that can provoke the curiosity of the victim and end up clicking.
Analyze the spelling, the words used, possible poorly translated texts, strange links… All this can give us clues that we are dealing with a false Facebook message that someone has sent, either directly to attack us or through a previous attack that they have suffered.
See if there are suspicious links and analyze them
Of course another key trick is to see if there are any links in that message and if they are suspects. Normally, cybercriminals will send a false message that will contain a link that takes us to a fraudulent page to log in, download a file or install something, and that is when the attack is executed.
You can use online services to analyze links. In this way you will be able to see if a particular link may contain malware and really be a danger. Logically, in case you detect something strange you should avoid opening it.
Visit the profile of the sender
If you have doubts about whether the person who sent that message is really a legitimate user or could be a bot, sometimes simply with visit the profile we can check it. This will help us detect problems and cheat that could compromise our passwords and personal data.
If when entering the profile you see that it only has a photo and nothing else, no messages or additional information, it may be a clear sign that it is a bot. These false profiles are created precisely to send automated messages and compromise other users who are real on Facebook.
Ask in case of doubt
Another thing to keep in mind is just to ask in case of doubt. This is logically oriented to when you receive a message from a contact, who can be a friend or family member, and you doubt if they have really sent it or there may be something strange behind it and it has not been voluntary.
It is also a way to alert in case this person’s account has been previously attacked and that they can thus take action. It will certainly help break the chain and prevent other users from being infected and starting to send messages on Facebook.