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newyorkguy

Penultimate Amazing
newyorkguy
Joined
Mar 12, 2013
Messages
14,957
Location
NY
My first question is, what is this?

Yesterday I got an email from a friend. Or so I thought. The title was "Robert Smith sent you a message." It looked a little hinky but I was at work so I opened it on a company computer. :o The text read the same as the title: "Robert Smith sent you a message." When I clicked on "View Message" I was asked to "log in." Log in to what? The log in page asked for my email and password. What password? I put in my email address and used my email password. It took me to a Facebook page my friend uses. The post was a historic video someone posted in December 2019. When I emailed my friend to 'thank him,' he emailed me back he knew nothing about it.

I have since discovered, "Messenger is a proprietary instant messaging app and platform developed by Meta Platforms. Originally developed as Facebook Chat in 2008." Okay.

But why did Facebook or Messenger decide to send me a link to something posted almost three years ago? Why did it state "Robert Smith sent you a message, " when he didn't? That doesn't seem ethical. In fact, what it seems like is dishonest and manipulative. At the bottom of the email I got, it stated, in tiny font: "If you don't want to receive these emails from Meta in the future, please unsubscribe. Meta Platforms, Inc., Attention: Community Support, 1 Facebook Way, Menlo Park, CA 94025.'

If I don't want to receive emails from Meta? The email was titled "Robert Smith sent you a message," not "Meta sent you a message." If it had read, "Meta sent you a message," I would have deleted it without bothering to open it. I presume Messenger knows that which is why it doesn't say, Meta sent you a message.

Anybody familiar with this? I'm asking here because, expedience tells me, asking Facebook would be a waste of time. Mine and theirs.
 
You need to change your password pronto because you probably just gave it to a scammer. Change it every place you use that email/password combination.
 
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I use messenger. I get alerts through the messenger app or a flag pops up in facebook when I am logged in to it. I never have had an email telling me I have a message.

I agree with RecoveringYuppy. Change your email, facebook and other shared passwords asap


To answer your first question messenger is Facebook's pm system where you can send a private message to other Facebook users rather than posting publicly on your or their page.
 
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Thanks I changed the passwords. I never had an alert via email before either but the email does look legit. Something has been changing with Facebook. I used to get a lot of alerts via Facebook for a friend who posts a couple times a day. Those have stopped coming. In fact, beginning a couple weeks ago, most of my Facebook alerts have stopped coming.

I think I verified it did come from Facebook Messenger. I went to their page and logged in. I saw the same link. A video posted in a group from December 2019. My friend is a member of that group.
 
I verified it by going to Facebook Messenger's website. I found the same message there.
 
newyorkguy said:
My first question is, what is this?

Yesterday I got an email from a friend. Or so I thought. The title was "Robert Smith sent you a message." It looked a little hinky but I was at work so I opened it on a company computer. :o The text read the same as the title: "Robert Smith sent you a message." When I clicked on "View Message" I was asked to "log in." Log in to what? The log in page asked for my email and password. What password? I put in my email address and used my email password. It took me to a Facebook page my friend uses. The post was a historic video someone posted in December 2019. When I emailed my friend to 'thank him,' he emailed me back he knew nothing about it.

I have since discovered, "Messenger is a proprietary instant messaging app and platform developed by Meta Platforms. Originally developed as Facebook Chat in 2008." Okay.

But why did Facebook or Messenger decide to send me a link to something posted almost three years ago? Why did it state "Robert Smith sent you a message, " when he didn't? That doesn't seem ethical. In fact, what it seems like is dishonest and manipulative. At the bottom of the email I got, it stated, in tiny font: "If you don't want to receive these emails from Meta in the future, please unsubscribe. Meta Platforms, Inc., Attention: Community Support, 1 Facebook Way, Menlo Park, CA 94025.'

If I don't want to receive emails from Meta? The email was titled "Robert Smith sent you a message," not "Meta sent you a message." If it had read, "Meta sent you a message," I would have deleted it without bothering to open it. I presume Messenger knows that which is why it doesn't say, Meta sent you a message.

Anybody familiar with this? I'm asking here because, expedience tells me, asking Facebook would be a waste of time. Mine and theirs.
Click to expand...


I haven't read the thread, or even your OP, beyond the sentence I've highlighted, and boldfonted, and underlined. Seriously? You did that? That's such an obvious thing, that.

(Yeah, just checked, this is not in Community, or Humor, but in the Computers-etc subforum. So I guess you're serious, and you did actually do that.)

Just go change your password ASAP!


eta: Just read the rest of the thread. It seems you've done that already, changed your password. And no harm done, it seems, else you'd have told us I guess. So all good.
 
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Tony99 said:
What everyone has said. Please change your accounts password...everywhere.
It's a common FB Messenger credential harvesting scam. You're friend's account has been compromised and now yours has as well.
Click to expand...

I'd have to be crazy to click on ^ that link. ;)

The link I clicked on took me to www. messenger dot com. There was no redirect. It took me to the Messenger website. I've gone back, same message, still up.

This thread was supposed to be about, is it ethical for Facebook Messenger to send emails purportedly "from" someone when in reality it's actually "from" Facebook.
 
Check carefully the name of the link to probably a different name of a link you went to. A period, zero instead of capital O or or some other tiny trick could be in play.

These guys know all the tricks to fool someone that isn't thinking about it fully at that moment.

I am not on any major social media and generally never click any link. Just sorta paranoid and most things aren't that interesting.
 
I don't think you're in any danger. I get these messages sent to the email I signed up on Facebook with all of the time. I generally ignore them.

I'm not saying go around and click on links in emails, obviously, but I don't think anyone snagged your credentials or anything like that.

That being said, I don't think Facebook should be sending you messages years after, that's for sure. Then again, I've heard Facebook has been struggling lately, and if you haven't logged in for awhile they might just want to bring your eyes back to the site.
 
I get the Facebook email alerts. I never got one from Messenger before -- actually I might have but I deleted it without opening; I think I recently (and inadvertently) downloaded or joined Messenger via my phone (by accident) -- but it seems very Facebooklike.

There was some rhyme and reason to the link I got. 'Robert Smith' and I had been discussing, on an email group, some history in the Albany NY area in the late 1940s. The link I got was to a video from around the same time period (late 1940s) and the same area, just one posted to a similar group (that Robert belongs to) in 2019. The "NewYorkGuy you might also be interested in..." kind of thing I get all the time.

Ever notice when you visit Facebook, you can't use the backspace key or arrow to go back to where you were? Not with the usual single click. That's because when you visit Facebook you get at least eight "Facebook" urls in your history. [See below] What other website does that? None that I've ever encountered.

But we've all read about Mark Zuckerberg. :rolleyes:
 

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