GREENSBORO, N.C. — You get a friend request on facebook and you see you have a bunch of mutual friends, but you've never heard of this person, and the account is brand new.
You're probably looking at a fake account. And this is happening more and more often.
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Facebook says the amount of fake and abusive accounts on its website doubled in the last six months. They say they removed 3 billion accounts between October and March.
And that means more of them have potentially fallen through the cracks. Here's what you need to know, those fake accounts can expose you to dangerous links, fake news, and all kinds of other things.
Here is an easy-to-follow tip: don't add anyone you don't know on Facebook. They might not be a real person
And if you think it is a real person who you want to get to know, ask your Facebook friends where they know them from. If it's only from Facebook, you probably want to turn down that friend request.