📲 Social Media Scams — What's Hitting Facebook & Reddit Right Now
These didn't exist 5 years ago. They're the fastest-growing fraud category in the UK.
Post or ad says: "Try this free AI — it writes your captions / does your taxes / generates photos of you." You click it. It asks to connect to your Facebook account. You approve. That's it. It now has access to everything — your profile, friends list, login token, sometimes payment methods. Your account is packaged and sold. Common price on the dark web for a real verified Facebook account: £20–£200 depending on account age and followers.
🚩 SIGNS
- App asks to "log in with Facebook" — especially third-party sites
- Promised a payment or free service in exchange for connecting
- Ad looks like it's from a friend who "recommends" it
- You get logged out of Facebook shortly after
- Friends start getting messages "from you" you didn't send
✅ WHAT TO DO
- Go to Facebook Settings → Apps and Websites → remove anything you don't recognise
- Enable two-factor authentication on Facebook NOW — takes 2 minutes
- Never use "Log in with Facebook" on third-party sites unless you fully trust them
- If already compromised: change password immediately, log out all devices, report to Facebook
Posts on Facebook groups offering to buy your account — "£30 for a 5-year-old Facebook account." Or selling accounts — "Verified UK Facebook account, 500 friends, £25." Both sides of this are toxic. If you sell: scammers use your identity and reputation to run scams on your friends. If you buy: you're enabling fraud and potentially committing it. Your old account never truly disappears — it becomes a vehicle.
🚩 SIGNS
- Someone offers to buy your Facebook account for cash
- Posts selling "aged" or "verified" accounts in groups
- Offer to pay you to "lend" your account for a day
- Account recovery services asking for your login details
✅ WHAT TO DO
- Never sell your Facebook account — your friends get scammed with your face
- Never buy accounts — you inherit their scam history and enable fraud
- Report account selling posts directly to Facebook
- Old account you don't use? Deactivate it properly — don't leave it sitting there
Facebook post: "Earn £50 — just need a photo of your passport/driving licence for a quick ID check." The payment never comes. Your ID is used to open bank accounts, apply for loans and credit cards, register fraudulent businesses, and commit crimes in your name. A clear photo of your passport front can unlock thousands in credit. Identity fraud takes years to clean up. Some victims are still dealing with it 5 years later.
🚩 SIGNS
- Any request to photograph ID for a stranger — even for "quick verification"
- Promise of cash, vouchers, or crypto in exchange for ID documents
- Requests to photograph ID "next to your face" — even worse
- Job offers, car hire, property viewings asking for upfront ID via photo message
✅ WHAT TO DO
- Never photograph your passport, driving licence, or utility bills for anyone you don't fully know
- Legitimate employers use proper ID checking services — not WhatsApp photos
- If you already did this: contact Action Fraud and put a CIFAS protective registration on your credit file
- CIFAS marker: cifas.org.uk — it alerts lenders that your ID may be compromised
Looks like a legit job or favour. "Receive money into your account, keep 10%, forward the rest." Sometimes dressed up as a remote job, sometimes a "friend of a friend" asking a favour. The money going through your account is stolen. You are laundering it. When the police trace it — they trace it to you. Your bank closes your account. You may face prosecution. Being broke and desperate is exactly who they target.
🚩 SIGNS
- Job that involves receiving money and forwarding it
- "Payment processor" or "financial agent" role with no qualifications needed
- Someone asks to use your bank account "just this once"
- Large unexpected payment into your account with instructions to forward it
- You keep a percentage — sounds good, it's criminal
✅ WHAT TO DO
- If money arrives unexpectedly — do not touch it, contact your bank immediately
- This is a criminal offence regardless of whether you knew what you were doing
- Report to Action Fraud: actionfraud.police.uk
- If you've already done it: speak to a solicitor before contacting police
- Young people especially targeted — being skint is not a defence in law
Your friend's Facebook gets hacked. The scammer then messages all their contacts pretending to be them. "Can you lend me £100? PayPal me, I'll pay back tomorrow." Or: "I need your help with something urgent." It feels real — it's their account, their name, their profile photo. It's not them. Your real friend has no idea it's happening until everyone starts asking if they're okay.
🚩 SIGNS
- Facebook message from a friend asking to borrow money urgently
- Unusual tone — formal, panicked, or slightly off compared to how they usually write
- Pressure to act NOW before you can think or call them
- Asking you to send to a different account than usual
✅ WHAT TO DO
- Call or text your friend on their actual phone number before sending anything
- One rule: never send money based on a Facebook message alone. Ever.
- If you think their account is hacked: tell them via phone so they can act
- Report the compromised account to Facebook directly
🔒 The Rule That Covers All of These
If someone on Facebook or Reddit is offering you money, asking for your ID, asking to use your account, or asking you to install something — they are not your friend.
Being broke makes these offers feel harder to say no to. That's exactly why scammers use them.
There is no legitimate easy money on social media. There is only legitimate hard money, or someone else's money leaving your hands.