Facebook...

[Volpone]

So. My Facebook account got hacked. Basically because individual accounts are chattel to Facebook and the place is run by 'bots. So once someone in China tells them they're you, Facebook goes "Oh, OK. That sounds perfectly reasonable. Here's a pin to log in, change your password and e-mail, and set up a 'bot that can log in faster than the actual user when he tries to get his account back--if he can convince our 'bots that he's real." I may digress on that later, but for now, the point is, after 24 hours of angst, at this point I'm really not particularly missing Facebook. I miss being able to keep in touch with friends and family in other parts of the country, but I'm realizing what a huge hassle and hindrance just doing that on Facebook had become. Around half my time there was just trying to manage all the distractions and annoyances the application was trying to force on me. I'd already taken Messenger off my phone long ago and the actual main app not long after that. Will other people see the light and that's the end for social networking? Will Facebook get its ass sued off for negligent security and administration? (it should) Or will people just dutifully create a new account to go in and rebuild after they get hacked like at least a few people I know? I dunno. We'll see.

 

[The Question]

I barely use it at all, anymore, myself; I may stop using it entirely, now that I think about what few things I use it for. Basically, just talking to people in a dry snuff group, and trolling leftists. And there's no genuine need to do the former, and I can do the latter anywhere. Muwhahaha.

 

[Volpone]

Seriously. It filters your friends' activity so you have no idea if you're seeing everything unless you go to each friend's page individually and constantly sticks in "HEY! HERE'S SOME COOL VIDEOS YOU SHOULD WATCH!" "HERE'S SOME COOL GROUPS YOU SHOULD JOIN!" "HERE'S SOME PEOPLE YOU SHOULD BE FRIENDS WITH!" "HERE'S SOME SHIT YOU SHOULD BUY!" It's almost more work than just starting your own social network tool.

 

[The Question]

This is why Gab is much preferable. Well, for those friends and family members who won't get "the vapors" over all the "spicy and colorful" that comes with a free speech centric platform.

 

[Colonel Kira's Left Tit]

I don't use Facebook but I have a sort of dummy account for reading local news items (and unfortunately commentary) once in a great while. I do look at Marketplace too, and MAN, the number of obvious scams posted there is incredible. Nobody seems to do anything about them, either.

It's all a wasteland, I guess is what I'm saying.

 

[Volpone]

Someone wrote an article on that; how obvious the scams are but that Facebook doesn't do anything about them and if you actually report one...Facebook STILL doesn't do anything about it.

When I finished up my occupational school for the Marines, I bumped into one of my classmates. He was off to the privately owned uniform shop to return a tanker jacket he didn't need that he'd been talked into buying. "Apparently they don't so much consider me an officer of Marines so much as a giant walking dollar sign." And that's Facebook. If the money's coming in, who cares if there's no security and there's fraud and theft everywhere? I hope someone puts together a class action suit.

 

[Volpone]

That said, truth be told, if I can manage to get back in, I will continue on. Made more progress tonight than I have since getting locked out. But right now, no success.

 

[Volpone]

I'm back in. Although it's kind of like the episode of "Friends" where Joey and Chandler were getting a free porn channel and they didn't want to turn it off for fear they couldn't get it back.

 

[The Question]

You might want to set up two-factor authentication. I'd do that, myself, except that I don't give a shit. lol

 

[jack]

Since I learned how to do reels, and link the three accounts (FB, Instagram and Meta) I've found the system to be the most remarkable vehicle for totally free advertising to promote whatever I happen to be selling at the time.

I put it to the test this week. We planned a vacation for the last 10 days, and using these vehicles I was able to insert 3 gigs into the mix, which totally defrayed all the regular expenses associated with traveling.

But yeah, FB sucks if you're trying to use it as a way to stay connected with your family, friends or whatever. The signal to noise ratio is off the charts and the spam sucks.

Best way to avoid getting "hacked" is to lock your friends list down so only you see it. That eliminates third party gawkers who then try to trick you, or your friends into revealing personal info to take over your account. Also make your account private.

Works for me.

 

[Loktar]

I don't use Facebook but I have a sort of dummy account for reading local news items (and unfortunately commentary) once in a great while. I do look at Marketplace too, and MAN, the number of obvious scams posted there is incredible. Nobody seems to do anything about them, either.

It's all a wasteland, I guess is what I'm saying.

Facebook and Craigslist scams keep me employed. You bought a car off Craigslist or Marketplace and paid them before realizing they had no title or paperwork to give you and the car is a piece of shit, and suddenly it's the DMV Title Bureau's problem/fault? HAHAHAHAHAHAHA!

 

[Volpone]

You might want to set up two-factor authentication. I'd do that, myself, except that I don't give a shit. lol

Doesn't matter. You know why? You can just tell Facebook you've lost access to your phone and e-mail. Then Facebook will ask you for a new e-mail address and send a PIN there. Once you enter the PIN, Facebook asks you to upload an ID via the Webcam. The entire process is automated and involves no humans. If Facebook decides your ID is good enough, it sends you another PIN and lets you change all your login information. ...

So strong password? Doesn't matter. Two factor ID? Doesn't matter. Anyone with a fake ID that can fool a robot over a Webcam can get in, delete your existing contact info, change your password, and steal your account if you aren't Johnny-on-the-spot when they send the notification e-mail that someone's trying to change your password.

The hacker set up 2 factor authentication, yet I was able to get the account back once they realized it didn't have anything valuable in it and moved on to another target.

 

[Volpone]

It's embarrassing. If I were in charge of a tech company that big and that was how I managed accounts, I'd be ashamed. They should probably be sued bankrupt for negligence.

 

[Volpone]

On further consideration, 2FA isn't completely useless. You're more likely to notice the text, telling you someone's trying to change your password than you would an e-mail. But it doesn't work the way it is designed to.

 

[Volpone]

Today I found out the reason for the hack--to set up 5 or 6 ads. I think I've successfully deleted them out. I notified Facebook--although I doubt they give a shit. Should be no way they used my money to buy them, because any credit cards I used on Facebook expired years ago.

 

[NeonMercuryASH]

I don’t go there anymore. It’s turned into Beliefnet.

 

[Volpone]

I've 2 good things to say about Facebook: 1) They've made it so that you can turn off the ability of anybody anywhere in the world to send a password reset PIN to any e-mail or phone number of their choice. Although that's kind of like saying it's good that someone has stopped forcing you to play Russian Roulette--they kinda never should've had this policy (and completely automated too) in the first place. 2) They've made it easy to download your videos. So now I've got a handful of videos of my Old Dog that I'd deleted off my phone to save space.

Of course there's also an overwhelming amount of shit they've done. Their algorithm for your feed continues to be shit. So if you actually want to find out what your friends are up to you've got to visit each of their pages. They've shitted up my feed with so many ads and other garbage that it would be practically useless even if it did have everyone's updates in it. And they've fixed it so you can no longer permanently block garbage pages--only a 30 block (and sometimes not even that). The only value it provides is that it is where my friends and relatives have accounts.

Then there's FoxNews.com, but that's probably another thread. But geez, has that site gone to shit.

 

[Volpone]

Yeah. So I just got a password reset PIN email. So apparently Facebook decided it was a bad idea to prevent anybody anywhere in the world from being able to reset a person's password. And my feed is still shit up with garbage so I've deleted out almost a year of content.