{“lastseen”:”2025-12-08T14:05:10″,”description”:”The FBI has warned about a new type of scam where your Facebook pictures are harvested to act as \u201cproof-of-life\u201d pictures in a virtual kidnapping.\\n\\nThe scammers pretend they have kidnapped somebody and contact friends and next of kin to demand a ransom for their release. While the alleged victim is really just going about their normal day, criminals show the family real Facebook photos to \u201cprove\u201d that person is still alive but in their custody.\\n\\nThis attack resembles Facebook cloning but with a darker twist. Instead of just impersonating you to scam your friends, attackers weaponize your pictures to stage fake proof\u2011of\u2011life evidence.\\n\\nBoth scams feed on oversharing. Public posts give criminals more than enough information to impersonate you, copy your life, and convince your loved ones something is wrong. \\n\\nThis alert focuses on criminals scraping photos from social media (usually Facebook, but also LinkedIn, X, or any public profile) then manipulating those images with AI or simple editing to use during extortion attempts. If you know what to look for, you might spot inconsistencies like missing tattoos, unusual lighting, or proportions that don\u2019t quite match.\\n\\nScammers rely on panic. They push tight deadlines, threaten violence, and try to force split-second decisions. That emotional pressure is part of their playbook.\\n\\nIn recent years, the FBI has also warned about synthetic media and deepfakes, like explicit images generated from benign photos and then used for sextortion, which is a closely related pattern of abuse of user\u2011posted pictures. Together, these warnings point to a trend: ordinary profile photos, holiday snaps, and professional headshots are increasingly weaponized for extortion rather than classic account hacking.\\n\\n## What you can do\\n\\nTo make it harder for criminals to use these tactics, be mindful of what information you share on social media. Share pictures of yourself, or your children, only with actual friends and not for the whole world to find. And when you\u2019re travelling, post the beautiful pictures you have taken when you\u2019re back, not while you\u2019re away from home.\\n\\nFacebook\u2019s built-in privacy tool lets you quickly adjust:\\n\\n * Who can see your posts.\\n * Who can see your profile information.\\n * App and website permissions.\\n\\n\\n\\nIf you\u2019re on the receiving end of a virtual kidnapping attempt:\\n\\n * Establish a code word only you and your loved ones know that you can use to prove it\u2019s really you.\\n * Always attempt to contact the alleged victim before considering paying any ransom demand.\\n * Keep records of every communication with the scammers. They can be helpful in a police investigation.\\n * Report the incident to the FBI’s Internet Crime Complaint Center at www.ic3.gov.\\n\\n\\n\\n* * *\\n\\n**We don ‘t just report on threats – we help protect your social media**\\n\\nCybersecurity risks should never spread beyond a headline. Protect your social media accounts by using Malwarebytes Identity Theft Protection.”,”published”:”2025-12-08T13:17:18″,”modified”:”2025-12-08T13:17:18″,”type”:”malwarebytes”,”title”:”Scammers harvesting Facebook photos to stage fake kidnappings, warns FBI”,”source”:””,”references”:””,”id”:”MALWAREBYTES:BA3D9151F725DFA8AAC9D603DC07DB34″,”bulletinFamily”:”blog”,”cwe”:null,”cvelist”:[],”sourceData”:””,”sourceHref”:””,”cvss”:{“score”:0,”severity”:”NONE”,”vector”:”NONE”,”version”:”NONE”},”cvss2″:{},”cvss3″:{“version”:””,”vectorString”:””,”baseScore”:0,”baseSeverity”:””,”attackVector”:””,”attackComplexity”:””,”privilegesRequired”:””,”userInteraction”:””,”scope”:””,”confidentialityImpact”:””,”integrityImpact”:””,”availabilityImpact”:””,”cvssV3″:{“version”:””,”vectorString”:””,”baseScore”:0,”baseSeverity”:””,”attackVector”:””,”attackComplexity”:””,”privilegesRequired”:””,”userInteraction”:””,”scope”:””,”confidentialityImpact”:””,”integrityImpact”:””,”availabilityImpact”:””}},”href”:”https:\/\/www.malwarebytes.com\/blog\/news\/2025\/12\/scammers-harvesting-facebook-photos-to-stage-fake-kidnappings-warns-fbi”,”category_name”:”News”,”post_link”:””,”product”:””,”version”:””,”vendor”:””,”ai_description”:””,”ai_severity”:””,”ai_vendor”:””,”ai_product”:””,”ai_version”:””,”ai_score”:0}<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
{“lastseen”:”2025-12-08T14:05:10″,”description”:”The FBI has warned about a new type of scam where your Facebook pictures are harvested to act as \u201cproof-of-life\u201d pictures in a virtual kidnapping.\\n\\nThe…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[6,8,12,115,13,33,7,11,5],"class_list":["post-29306","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-category_news","tag-cve","tag-cvss","tag-exploit","tag-malwarebytes","tag-news","tag-none","tag-security","tag-tapic","tag-vulnerability"],"yoast_head":"\n