"Your Page Has Been Suspended" Facebook Phishing Scam

Phishing attempts are sadly common thanks to one of the weakest links in computer security – the user. Unfortunately it can be easy for anyone to click a link while in a panic or on autopilot, but it’s important to pay close attention to any links asking for information or claiming to be some important notification. Never give out sensitive details unless you can confirm the site or person asking for them is who they say they are, and be careful before opening any files from the internet. These scams are designed to prey on emotion, so even the most technically literate people can fall victim.

I recently had someone share a notification that had them worried about their Facebook page being suspended, but I immediately noticed that the notification seemed a little odd. The notification was grouped in with other notifications about page mentions, making me skeptical that it was actually an official Facebook notification.

After looking at the post in question, it was clear that it was a phishing attempt. The post claims that someone has reported you and you must confirm your account by verifying your information. The link contained in the post was obviously a link to a non-Facebook website, but sometimes these phishing links can use tricks (like replacing similar characters or domains) to look legitimate if you don’t look closely. At the end of the post the scammers will include enough whitespace to try to hide that they’ve tagged several accounts at the very end, and this is what triggered the notification we saw before.

These types of phishing attempts are all over the place and constantly evolving to evade efforts combatting them. When I searched the web for this particular iteration there were very few results, so I wanted to share my findings for the next person.