Fake Mark Zuckerbergs Scam Facebook Users Out of Their Cash (nytimes.com)

Hundreds of Facebook and Instagram accounts have been parading as Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg and COO Sheryl Sandberg, tricking vulnerable individuals into sending large amounts of money in order to collect bogus lottery winnings, the New York Times reports [Editor's note: the link may be paywalled]. From a report: An examination by The New York Times found 205 accounts impersonating Mr. Zuckerberg and Ms. Sandberg on Facebook and its photo-sharing site Instagram, not including fan pages or satire accounts, which are permitted under the company's rules. At least 51 of the impostor accounts, including 43 on Instagram, were lottery scams like the one that fooled Mr. Bernhardt.

The fake Zuckerbergs and faux Sandbergs have proliferated on Facebook and Instagram, despite the presence of Facebook groups that track the scams and complaints about the trick dating to at least 2010. A day after The Times informed Facebook of its findings, the company removed all 96 impostor Mark Zuckerberg and Sheryl Sandberg accounts on its Facebook site. It had left up all but one of the 109 fakes on Instagram, but removed them after this article was published.

Comments

Huh?

[Obfuscant]

If someone thinks that Mark Zuckerberg will be sending them a notice that they won a magical lottery that they hadn't bought an entry in to begin with, then there is nothing that can be done to solve the real problem. (Hint: the real problem is not that Facebook allows people to use the name Mark Zuckerberg.)

A side-problem is the proliferation of professional services where organizations outsource their tasks like email, timesheets, etc, to, so it truly is becoming impossible to determine what is and is not a phishing attack. My university uses outsourced timesheet entry services, so you have to log in using your university credentials to do your monthly timesheet. They use an outsourced mailing list to send donation requests from the University Foundation. The e-purchasing website is off-site. Even if you personally never buy anything through the e-purchasing site, you get email regarding those purchases that way.

The only way to know a phish these days is because of the poor grammar and spelling. If the scammers ever hire native English speakers to write their phishes, we're all toast.