A young relative’s Facebook account was hijacked (via social engineering) and below is my message exchange with the new person behind the old persona. The hijacker initially asked for my mobile number, presumably hoping to complete the conversation via text message instead of on Facebook. I was immediately suspicious given that we were already in an application that allows text, voice, and video. When the request was for $100 I knew that it was a scam because 100 Bidies rounds to $0 in 2022 purchasing power.
I am a little confused…
Fortuitously, it turns out that I am good friends with Tito Rodrigueze:
The hijacking victim’s mom spent days trying to recover the account. Facebook is not easy to deal with, it seems.
At least you had some fun on FB … sadly, at the cost of your young relative’s frustration!!
I remember the good old days when we hacked into fellow classmate’s terminal, mostly for fun of course. 🙂
Oh my goodness, that is an Old Skool Masterpiece. I haven’t seen anything that much fun since Cliff Stoll (“The Cukoo’s Egg”), Dihydrogen Monoxide and the Klein Bottle. It really sucks when you try to extort money by hacking a FB account closely related to someone who used to teach the CS curriculum at MIT.
Best laugh I’ve had in ages, and extremely well-played.
Thanks, Alex. The social engineers get smarter every year, though, so I am sure that the time will come when I get hijacked or swindled.
@philg: Hopefully a very long time from now, when we’re no longer reflexively kicking Sweden!
I’m Tito Rodrigueze and I didn’t get my $100. Could you send it again to my email which you will see in your comment admin panel?
great exchange!
Someone pretending to be me (an AI trained to mimic my voice from my YouTube videos?) called my 87 year old aunt to ask for money to bail me out of Jail. She doesn’t own a smart phone but was smart enough to ask the AI what I did on Saturday, and how many children Uncle Tony fathered in Cambodia. They hung up.