Facebook’s Lack Of Hacking Resolution System For Nigerian Scammers

From TechDirt, January 22, 2009
In the past week, you may have seen various news stories about Nigerian scammers hacking into Facebook, and then sending their “friends” messages, saying they’re stranded in London without money. It is, of course, just the latest improvement on the venerable old Nigerian 419 scam, this time upgraded to use hacked/phished Facebook accounts to trick trusting friends into coughing up their money. However, one of the biggest issues is raised by Yehuda Berlinger, who points out that for those who are hacked, Facebook doesn’t seem to have any reasonable way to contact them and fix the problem. Considering how much of your “identity” might be tied up in your social networking profile, you would think that a company like Facebook would have a ready made system in place to handle such “emergency” situations.