Facebook Scam - How Paranoid Should I Be?

this is why you don't play those "5 things you don't know about me" questions on facebook. Especially when you don't know the privacy settings people have..and you don't know their friends...

Exactly HOW did you almost get scammed? What did they do?

You should change your passwords regularly - like once a month - to be honest - on ALL of your accounts. Even this one.

Last year I kept getting calls from some Indian guy that said I owed the IRS over $5K and that they WERE THE IRS - I laughed and called the IRS directly and said - I just got a call ....they said - it's a scam - (to be honest I KNEW this but heck - I'd rather double check). So they called back and I played with them. Yep. I was bad. But guess what?? They don't call me anymore!!!

Did your friend's profile get hacked and it started posting things on her behalf, but that she didn't post herself, like advertisements or videos and links?

Did you click on one of these posts or links?

If so, you gave the scammers access to your Facebook account (ie. username and password) and simply need to change the password to keep them from posting from your account also.

If you clicked on a link that asked for your personal information, then yes, anything you gave them could be used to steal your identity. Those kind of scams aren't the type that are most common when a Facebook account gets hacked. You're more likely to have your identity at risk by clicking on a link in an unrecognized email and entering personal information.

Most likely, anything you've opened the door to can be easily thwarted with a simple password change.

I am kind of confused here. What exactly happened? Did someone message you using a fake profile with your friend's name? Even my friends who are my friends wouldn't get much from FB, they know things because they know me. There is no way on earth they could get my social security number or account numbers from FB so what is the worry?

Most scammer cast a large net and wait for the fish to come to them. If you gave them nothing they have nothing. You would be amazed how many people are dumb enough to give them real information.

If they only have your name and city I wouldn't worry since they can get that information from a telephone book.

These scammers are a bunch of creative people though.

Don't worry - happens all the time. Just change your password. FB is so public anyway, it's easy for the scammers to get that info. So going forward, just don't accept any "friend" requests from people you are already friends with. Instead, notify them through private message that you got a request so they can change their privacy settings.

What's actually a bigger deal is all the "like farming" where scammers collect your data based on what you click on - a lot of the quizzes (what's your stripper name, which Star Wars character are you, etc.) are like this, as are the vast majority of "Type Amen if you're against animal cruelty" or "Type 9 and see what happens" type posts. Same thing with liking the Tiffany & Co. post to get free diamonds (you won't), liking Delta or Southwest to get a free trip (they aren't giving one away), the Range Rover scam, and most of the others. The biggest one was the hoax that FB itself was giving millions of dollars away and the first 1000 people would split it. These are ALL scammers trying to "farm" your info and figure out your passwords by finding out your anniversary, your pet's name, your high school/hometown, and so on. I usually check things out on Snopes.com but I also just started getting posts from Hoax Slayer which seems to be reliable as well.

"No links clicked, no personal info shared other than my name."

You have nothing to worry about.