‘Account in Violation of Terms of Service’ Facebook Phishing Scam

The message is not from Facebook and the claim that your account is about to be closed is untrue. The message is a phishing scam designed to steal your Facebook account login credentials as well as your credit card details and other personal information.

This ‘warning’, which was supposedly sent by the Facebook Ads team via Facebook’s messaging system, claims that your account has been found in violation of the company’s terms of service and will be closed for safety reasons.

The message lists several reasons why the account may be in violation and states – in rather convoluted English – that if you do not confirm as instructed, Facebook will be forced to permanently close the account and you will not be able to reopen it for any reason. It asks that you click a link to confirm that you are the real account holder and you are not running a ‘false account used to interfere with other people’.

However, the message is not an official Facebook notification and the claim that your account will be closed due to a terms of service violation is untrue. In fact, the message is just one more in an ongoing series of a title=”Facebook Team Security Phishing Scam – ‘Last Warning – Your Account Will Be Disabled’” href=”http://www.hoax-slayer.com/last-warning-disabled-facebook-phishing.shtml”>Facebook phishing scams designed to steal your account login details along with other personal and financial information.

If you are taken in by the false claims in the message and click the link as instructed, you will be taken to a fraudulent webpage that appears to be part of Facebook and features the Facebook logo and familiar blue colour scheme. Once on the fake page, you will be asked to log in with your Facebook username and password:

After supplying your login details on the fake site, you will be taken to a second fake webpage that demands that you update your credit card details:

Next you may be redirected to the real Facebook website.

Meanwhile, the criminals responsible for this attack can use the stolen login details to hijack your Facebook account. Once in your account, they can repurpose it to suit their own goals and use the messaging system to send versions of the above scam message to all of your friends.

They can also use the stolen credit card details to commit fraudulent transactions in your name.

Be wary of any message from Facebook that claims that your account will be suspended or disabled if you do not click a link to rectify the supposed issue. Facebook will not send you messages that demand such an action. Usually, Facebook will inform you via a notification from within your account if there is an account issue that you need to know about.

It is always safest to login to Facebook via an official app or by entering the address in your browser’s address bar rather than by clicking a link in a message.