Facebook ‘warning’ is a hoax, here’s what you should know

Have you seen those warnings on Facebook from some of your friends?

Officials say it’s all a hoax.

According to an Office of Homeland Security and Emergency Preparedness Facebook page, the message starts out:

“Hi….I actually got another friend request from you yesterday…which I ignored so you may want to check your account… hold your finger on the message until the forward button appears…then hit forward….”

Officials say forwarding the message only makes it worse. They say your account isn’t sending duplicate friend requests, and you didn’t receive a request from the person you’re forwarding it to.

“There was a cloning epidemic on Facebook 18 months or so ago. That was genuine. And people still do get hacked,” the Office of Homeland Security and Emergency Preparedness page said.

Facebook says more accounts are not being hacked; the message is spreading due to a viral chain letter.

A spokesperson for Facebook said, “Claiming to be another person on Facebook violates our Community Standards, and we have a dedicated team that’s tasked with helping to detect and block these kinds of scams.”