DE PERE, WI (WTAQ-WLUK) – According to De Pere Police, a school in the city contacted them about a handful of its students, primarily teenage girls, falling victim to an impersonator on Facebook.
“We believe there is more, but there is some embarrassment that comes with it.”
Detective Sergeant Matthew Guth of the De Pere Police Department spoke to FOX 11.
Guth says he isn’t sure how, but someone gained access to legitimate Facebook profiles.
The person would ask the profiles’ friends for their email password, telling them their own account wasn’t working and they needed to file a report or application.
From there, Guth says the person would walk the victim through steps to give them access to their cloud storage.
“He was using more of a socially engineering tactic where he communicates with the person to get their information to get their trust, believing this was a friend of the victim.”
Police say the victims wouldn’t realize the person wasn’t who they thought they were until the end of the conversation.
In some cases, Guth says the person would try blackmailing the victim into sending them more pictures.
“We’re pretty confident it’s not local though, just based on backtracking through the different profiles. The communication is pretty consistent with being Americanized rather than maybe overseas.”
“I don’t think that the average person feels like they’re in control of the cloud or they know how to manage it properly,” said Mark Glantz, a communication and media studies professor at St. Norbert College.
Glantz says there are two important takeaways from this case: people should learn how to access and maintain their cloud and people should remember to never share confidential information like passwords.
“Whether it’s a friend or an acquaintance, these accounts can be hacked all the time or compromised on Facebook or Twitter or anywhere else.”
