Is [email protected] Legitimate?
In the age of online scams, it pays to be wary. Many people have received unsolicited emails from [email protected], the mail usually contains a link that takes you to the real Facebook site. So the question is, are mails from this address the real deal?
The email address is legitimate address, owners of Facebooks accounts that a breach attempt occurred usually normally receive mails from the email address with the domain name. Every day there are attempts on millions of Facebook accounts.
If your account is protected by a two-step verification, when there is an attempted breach on your account you receive a mail from [email protected]. So when you receive a mail from this email address, have no fear, you are in safe hands.
If you are not sure about the legitimacy of a mail you receive from Facebook, or a security breach notification sent to your mail. Send a mail to [email protected], if the notification is fake, Facebook will inform you.
Table of Contents
Does Facebook Send Security Alerts?
Online scammers use a method called phishing, to extract information from unsuspecting victims.
Phishing (pronounced fishing) is when scammers send mails through cloned email addresses to unsuspecting victims in order to extract vital information like; social security number, ATM pins or account details.
One way that the scammers extract this information is by alerting accounting owners of an attempted breach in their accounts, and providing them a link to prevent a repeat of the breach.
Only the link doesn’t lead to the legitimate website, it leads to a phony site where all information dropped are used for nefarious activities.
This leads to the question, are there legitimate alerts from Facebook when real breaches to your account occur? Yes, they do. they even encourage you to set up your account so you can receive alerts in cases of unauthorized logins.
To get real notifications from Facebook, log into your account, and go to Settings. From the options, click or tap on Security and login. Then go to Get alerts about unrecognized logins, choose the email address or phone number you want the alerts to go.
One of the ways that Facebook has made it easy for people to differentiate between a real security alert and one from phishers,
is that they give the option if verifying if the login activity was from you or not. When you are the one who performed the login activity, click or tap on the This was me option.
If the login activity wasn’t from you, then your password is reset and your account is secure by clicking on the This wasn’t me option when you are notified of the login activity.
Also apart from choosing a number or email address to receive Facebook security alerts, you can designate a device as trusted.
This means when any login activity occurs from that device, Facebook does not send you security alerts.
Before choosing a PC or smartphone as a trusted device, ensure you are the only one that has access to the device to prevent unauthorized logins.
Does Facebook Inc. Send Emails?
Yes, it does. Facebook sends emails to account owners for a variety of reasons. A major reason why Facebook might send an email, is if there is an illegal login attempt on the account.
Facebookmail.com is the only domain that Facebook Inc. use in sending security mails to account users.
Facebook Inc. also provides users with the opportunity to report or confirm and strange emails, all users can send an enquiry to [email protected] to confirm if an email is from Facebook, or to report a fake email.
To help users even more, Facebook has provided a tool to help users confirm if an email came from them. Under the settings category, there is a recent addition;
Recent Emails About Security and Login. Under this option, you can confirm every mail Facebook has sent to the account owner.
If the owner of the Facebook account receives an email from Facebook, the person has the opportunity to check from this settings option to confirm if it is actually from Facebook or not. To get to this option, go to Options, then scroll and tap on Settings.
From the options in Settings, tap on Security and Login. Scroll to the Advanced option and tap on it, then scroll down to Recent Emails About Security and Login. If the emails received are not listed there, then you know it is not from Facebook Inc.
Does Facebook Send Emails About Being Hacked?
Yes, they do. they even encourage you to set up your account so you can receive alerts in cases of unauthorized logins.
To get real notifications from Facebook, log into your account, and go to Settings. From the options, click or tap on Security and login.
Then go to Get alerts about unrecognized logins, choose the email address or phone number you want the alerts to go.
One of the ways that Facebook has made it easy for two different between a real security alert and one from phishers, is that they give the option of verifying if the login activity was from you or not.
When you are the one who performed the login activity, click or tap on the This was me option.
If the login activity wasn’t from you, then your password is reset and your account is secure by clicking on the This wasn’t me option when you are notified of the login activity.
Also apart from choosing a number or email address to receive Facebook security alerts, you can designate a device as trusted.
This means when any login activity occurs from that device, Facebook does not send you security alerts.
Before choosing a PC or smartphone as a trusted device, ensure you are the only one that has access to the device to prevent unauthorized logins.
Can You Tell If Someone Logs into Your Facebook Messenger?
It is possible to tell if someone else has logged into your main Facebook account or your Facebook Messenger.
To know, doing the following. Login into your account, and go to Facebook settings. From Settings, scroll and tap on Active Sessions.
Active Sessions shows all the devices you are active on. If you don’t recognize some of the active devices you can take them out of the family and devices or completely log them off.
This way you can prevent others from having access to your information or using your Messenger account to send fraud or phishing links to your friends’ list.
Although, if some has taken over your account already then you might not have access to it anymore.
Most hacked accounts change passwords, so the original account owners can’t regain access to the account.
If that is the case, report the account to Facebook so the company can deactivate the account, inform as many friends as you can remember that your account has been hacked.
This is to prevent your unsuspecting friends from falling for scams or clicking on hacked links thinking it is from you.
What Happens If You Click On a Hacked Link?
Every day, people’s social media inboxes are bombarded with various incredible offers. For most of these offering,
there is link takes you to the website where to can get this incredible offer. It is important to note that all of these offers are fake, and these links are hacked.
Here some of the thing that could happen if you click on a hacked link, it could either be a phishing link, contain ransomware or malware.
As you can see most in almost cases, there are no good ends to clicking on a hacked link.
Even if the link comes from someone you know, it is not safe to click on any link. If you must, copy the link and paste it in a browser.
If you have done so in the past, run a diagnostic scan on your system or phone with a good antivirus software.
There are so many compromised accounts on Facebook whose purpose is to get information or spread viruses.
Remember the saying, “If it sounds too good to be true, it probably is.” Apply this saying when you come into contact with links.
Conclusion
It is important to protect your Facebook account from hackers, and scammers.
One of the ways to do that is by avoiding links that look suspicious, avoid all links period. Any emails that don’t come from [email protected] are not from Facebook.
Regularly check if you are the only one active on your account, log out from all strange devices.
If you log in to your Facebook account with a public computer, make sure you log out before leaving the system.
Report any account or websites that send you suspicious links, or fake mails that tell you your account has been breached.
The more these accounts are reported, the fewer the people that fall into the hands these hackers.
Finally, look out for security notifications from Facebook itself. Whenever there is a legitimate breach in your Facebook account, Facebook will send you a notification on your approved email or phone number.