Warning: Do Not Accept Friend Request from Anwar Jitou, He’s a Hacker-Fiction!
Summary of eRumor:
Posts circulating on Facebook warn users not to accept friend requests from Anwar Jitou because he’s a hacker.
The Truth:
Warnings not to accept a Facebook friend request from Anwar Jitour because he’s a hacker who can gain access to your contact list are not based on a credible threat.
The warning, which is a modern twist on an old warning not to accept a friend request from hackers Christopher Davies and Jessica Davies, appears to have started abroad. The rumor has appeared in countries like Gambia and Italy before making its way to the United States in late June 2017.
There are many different versions (some crudely translated into English) but the gist is that Anwar Jitou is a hacker, and accepting a friend request from him will connect his computer to your Facebook account will give him access to your entire contact list.
The Anwar Jitou hacker warning seemed to gain even more momentum after somebody created a Facebook profile under Anwar Jitou. After being deluged with messages, the page’s creator posted: “Hahahaha OMG why people dont undrestand that im not the real one i just created this page cuz i want likes from people … Im not the real one Anwar Jitou doesnt exist att all becuse i searched the name and couldnt find him. Please stop calling me hacker.”
The warning is virtually identical to a hoax that has been circulating since at least 2009 that warns Facebook users not to a accept friend from Christopher Davies and Jessica Davies because they’re hackers and will be able to access your entire contact list.
There have never been any credible accounts of Facebook users gaining access to a victims’ entire contact list through a simple friend request, and that doesn’t appear to be possible. However, Facebook advises users not to accept friend requests from people they don’t know in real life as a general practice.