Please Stop Sending Out Chain Messages With False Information

Another annoying Facebook chain message is making the rounds!

I don't know about you, but this weekend my Facebook inbox was spammed with a bunch of messages that look a little something like this:

"Hi....I actually got another friend request from you which I ignored so you may want to check your account. Hold your finger on the message until the forward button appears...then hit forward and all the people you want to forward too....I had to do the people individually. PLEASE DO NOT ACCEPT A NEW friendship FROM ME AT THIS TIME."

After I read the first line of the first message I received, I immediately began to panic. A few years ago, somebody on Facebook made a fake account using my name and photos. I got it taken down within a few hours, but it was very concerning because I don't know how long it was up or what they were doing using my name. So what did I do after reading that one line? I searched for my name on Facebook. When I didn't see any other accounts with my name, I became confused. I opened up the original message to ask the person what name the fake account was under, which is when I read the rest of the message. As soon as I saw the line about forwarding the message, I KNEW it was a giant scam. And then I got angry.

First of all, if you ever get a Facebook message that tells you that you have to forward something, it's a scam. Secondly, this one is asking you to flat out LIE. If you did not actually receive a second friend request from that person, DON'T TELL THEM THAT YOU DID. Yes, I realize some people's accounts DO get cloned (it happened to me), but by sending this message out to all of your friends, you are lying and causing unnecessary panic.

If you ever actually do get a friend request from a duplicate account, absolutely let that person know and report the page ASAP. It's that simple. Please, just STOP with the ridiculous chain messages.

Oh, and for the record, accepting a friend request from [INSERT NAME HERE] will NOT cause your account to be hacked, and posting a status won't prevent Facebook from charging you money.