Facebook is such a cesspool

I deleted my account a while back and don't miss it even one iota. I went through my friends list, picked out a handful of people that matter, made sure they all had my cell # programmed into their phones, then said adios.

But that's not really the point of this post. My mom is now retired and I guess officially a senior citizen. Today she called me and said one of her Facebook friends (another older lady) messaged her on there saying she got some grant for seniors. My mom said it was definitely this lady's account. Anyway they wanted her to send $600 in return for $40k (lulz). My mom talked to the person for a while, then said "If this is really Sheila, then call me." The hacker said "I'm busy right now, but trust me this is legit, I just got the $40k in the mail myself."

It took me a few to figure out what was going on. I knew it was frickery but I wasn't sure if my mom had been hacked, if the hackers had setup a fake facebook account impersonating someone else OR if they had actually hacked my mom's friend. So I did some googling and determined this is a known scam from Nigeria. They hack someone, then hit up all their friends for cash. They usually target the elderly, non computer savvy. fricking low life's.

My mom said people had been commenting on her friend's wall recently that she wasn't acting like herself and were wondering if she'd been hacked. I guess the answer is yes.

So, yeah, Facebook is a cesspool. It's a dangerous place, especially for the elderly who don't understand it.