Warning: Scam Artists Hit Facebook

I’d like to think most college women are smart enough not to wire money to those Nigerian princes promising us millions of dollars via email. But what if it was a friend in trouble?

A new wave of scams has surfaced on the web and they are hitting us where it hurts: on Facebook. These slimy scammers hack into accounts and send messages to friends telling them there is an emergency and they need to borrow money fast.

You would never turn down a friend in need and these guys know it. There have already been reports of people being sucked into this scam, some losing thousands of dollars.

Sure, you may think it seems pretty ridiculous that a friend in need would turn to Facebook to get help, but if you received an email with someone begging you to bail them out of some trouble, would you really ever assume it was all fake? We don’t live in Gossip Girl land where everything and everyone has an underlying motive, after all.

Facebook has been alerted and is on the lookout for these delinquents, but just be aware. If you get some sort of shady message from a friend (especially one of those “friends” you have only talked to once in class freshman year and accepted because they asked you and you just didn’t know how to say no), do a little follow up before you wire them the contents of your bank account.