Facebook Messenger will notify you if you receive messages from fake contacts

We have gone from being charged for a simple SMS to having a multitude of applications with which we can communicate totally 'free'. We can send messages through WhatsApp, Instagram or Facebook Messenger, to name the most popular. With the latter we are going to stop. Because if the communication channels multiply, so do the possibilities that cybercriminals want to contact us and do their own thing.

For this reason, Facebook Messenger has confirmed different tests that point to the same direction.The user must always be clear that they are receiving messages from real individuals and not from 'bots' that send automatic links, with which many can fall, click and fill their laptop with spyware that ends up looting relevant personal information. In other words, the user must know at all times that the message he receives is from the person he claims to be and that it is from a reliable and relevant source.

This new service would work as follows: when you receive a message from someone you don't know, or from someone with whom you haven't had contact for a long time, a warning signal will appear visibly indicating if the account sending the message is recently created, if the person is using Messenger without having any associated Facebook account (it can and is usually a cause for alarm), the country in which the phone number of the person who wants to contact you is registered and if the account has a name similar to another that you have as a trusted contact on Facebook.

In the middle Motherboard have posted a screenshot (you can see it at the top) in which you can read how these tests warn a Facebook user that an account is being impersonated. The account is newly created, is posing as a real Facebook contact and his Messenger account has been logged in through a Russian number. More than enough reasons to trigger the alarms.

Virus and Spyware Precautions on Facebook Messenger

From now until we have this new Facebook Messenger function active in our Messenger, the only thing we can do is prevent ourselves from attacks It is relatively easy to combat these malicious accounts and we just have to apply a little common sense to the matter at hand. For example, if a contact with whom we haven't spoken for a long time suddenly opens a private message for us and invites us to click on a link we don't know about.

Another strategy used by cybercriminals is to lure victims with possible offers and gifts that, of course, are never real. If someone tries to send you a file, especially if it's an executable, avoid them, whoever it is. If they are a trusted friend, invite them to send it to you through other ways such as Google Drive or email if the file does not exceed the maximum weight supported .

Allow only to trusted contacts in your Facebook Messenger account and ignore the request for messages that, the application itself, usually takes into account a somewhat hidden setting. To access it we do the following. When you open the application, in the icons at the bottom, the one with the silhouettes, if we press we can access another screen where we can see the message requests.