Don’t Accept Friend Request from Facebook Hacker Andrea Wilson-Fiction!
Summary of eRumor:
Social media posts warn not to accept friend requests from Facebook hacker Andrea Wilson.
The Truth:
A warning about a Facebook hacker named Andrea Wilson is a new variation on an old (and false) rumor.
These warnings about Andrea Wilson surfaced in November 2017. But they’re far from new. Warnings about accepting friend requests from hackers surface every few months. The name of the hacker changes, but the warning remains the same: Accepting the friend request will give the hacker access to all of your contacts’ Facebook accounts.
However, there have never been any credible reports of hackers being able to access their victims accounts, or their victims’ contacts’ accounts, through an accepted friend request. The closest threat we’ve been able to find is a Facebook cloning scam. An imposter creates a parallel account and re-friends their victims’ entire contact list. This gives the hacker access to their victims’ contact list — but not access to each friend’s account.
Still, there are many credible privacy and security threats on social media to watch out for. As a general practice, Facebook advises not to accept friend requests from people who you don’t know in real life. So, if you don’t know an Andrea Wilson in real life, it’s probably best not to accept the friend request.
We’ve investigated similar Facebook hacker warnings about James Woods, Anwar Jitou and Christopher Davies. None of them were credible.