IMF scam - heads up

[Justin Ludwig]

My "aunt" sent me a PM over Facebook messenger. I hadn't talked to her in a while so I broke the ice with questions about her new grand baby. She immediately started asking me if I knew about IMF grants. I was a bit perplexed but thought it had something to do with me building a shop for my business.

I said I'd look into it and went back into friendly conversation. She persisted on the IMF stuff. Very off for ANY of my aunts to do this. So I immediately called her. She was literally under her truck tinkering. She was NOT on her FB account messaging me. We had a good laugh and she immediately contacted FB and changed her passwords. She told me she already had trouble remembering that one. Poor gal.

Anyway... be forewarned - there is a scam about.

https://www.imf.org/external/scams.htm

https://www.facebook.com/help/community/question/?id=10203775736386814

[Jim Becker]

It probably wasn't coming from your aunt's real account...there's an "epidemic" of spoofed accounts where an individual copies photos and other information from a real account and creates another account with exactly the same name. They then attempt to "friend" friends of the original account...and many folks bite because they forget that they are already "friends" with the real individual with that name. Once you accept...private messages ensure that often lead to questions and scams like you mention...