Will your Facebook account be hacked after you die?
Trading in Facebook accounts is a huge business. Inactive Facebook accounts, or those that used to belong to dead people, are bought and sold in online marketplaces. While Facebook is aware of the issue, not all of us who use the platform for sharing memes and updating our status from the back of Wetherspoons understand this dark phenomenon. Here鈥檚 how hacking into dead people鈥檚 Facebook accounts is a growing problem.
What鈥檚 the current situation with people creating fake Facebook accounts?
We鈥檙e all aware of the large corners of the Web that are mysterious and downright dodgy.
But trading Facebook accounts isn鈥檛 so hidden away, in the dark corners. You can easily find these vast fake-account marketplaces. For a small sum, any opportunistic marketer, scammer or troll (yes, even you) can amass a legion of seemingly human profiles capable of outwitting Facebook鈥檚 detection to then extort friends and family.
Do hackers target dead people?
In the world of cyber security, no one can really escape a hacker with malicious intentions, and anyone could be targeted. But hackers are apt to use dead people鈥檚 accounts when going on a cloning spree, or setting up a hacking scam. Getting into an inactive account is much easier, as a dead person won鈥檛 be able to flag up any suspicious goings-on from six feet under.
While any Facebook account can do the same job, hackers have been incentivised to target dead people. There鈥檚 a whole lot more to sell on the marketplace if the person you鈥檝e hacked used to be a real person, for one, and who created real-life relationships, interactions and data.
Why are accounts so valuable?
It鈥檚 not just Facebook – Twitter, Instagram and even email accounts are also available to buy and sell on fake account marketplaces. for a hate campaign against the journalist Clare Rewcastle Brown.
It鈥檚 a strange enough feeling to scroll through your contacts list and find a dead friend鈥檚 phone number, but it鈥檚 even weirder to get a 鈥渓ike鈥� on Facebook from someone who鈥檚 been dead for 6 months.
While dead people鈥檚 accounts are also easier to get into, using them is also, well, more shocking. After getting a friend request from an uncle who鈥檇 apparently died 6 months earlier, you might be more likely to give into a bribe.
More reasons a hacker might use a dead person鈥檚 account:
- Readymade friend鈥檚 list
- Networks, pages and groups information and contacts
- It鈥檚 easier to blackmail people
- Hackers might receive more money
What can you do to stop your account getting hacked after you die?
- State that you would like your account to be turned into a memorial.
- You could do this at the same time as setting up a legacy contact.
- If you see a dead person鈥檚 account get hacked, then
- Visit our article on maintaining your online accounts after you die
Find out more
扒哥吃瓜 isn鈥檛 just unbearably boring admin and taxes; it also means your digital death. That鈥檚 why we created our 扒哥吃瓜 page – take a look at it here.
Do you have online privacy preferences for after you die? Read about it here
Do you have data privacy rights as a dead person? Read about it here
