THE SOURCES
- Better Business Bureau (BBB) Scam Tracker
- Blog posts from MalwareTips.com, a website about cybersecurity and privacy
- VERIFY analysis of the Facebook message
- University of Denver Information Security Department
THE ANSWER
No, Facebook messages about business pages being deleted are not legitimate. This is a scam.
Administrators of some Facebook business pages have recently been receiving alarming messages from accounts that appear to belong to Facebook staff members letting them know their page will soon be deleted.
“Important Notification: Your Facebook page is scheduled for permanent deletion due to a post that has infringed upon our trademark rights. We have reached this decision after a thorough review and in accordance with our intellectual property protection policies,” a portion of the message says.
There is a link in the message for the recipient to click on if they choose to appeal the deletion. DO NOT CLICK THE LINK!!
According to the Better Business Bureau’s (BBB) Scam Tracker, this message is a type of phishing scam. The exact text of the message received by VERIFY was posted on the scam tracker and reported on Dec. 13, 2023.
Phishing scams are a type of cyber security attack. Scammers target individuals through email, text messages, phone calls, or other forms of digital communication.
The BBB says the goal of these kinds of cyber attacks is to “mislead recipients into providing personal information that the scammer will use to gain access to bank accounts or steal recipients’ identity.”
Full article from Verify on MSN.com is located here.