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As if the phishy advertising links weren’t bad enough, Facebook seems to have had another issue on its hands this week. When Facebook users received an email from Facebook admin telling them they would need to reset their email preferences, red flags went off, reports InternetNews. The email read as follows:
“Unfortunately, the settings that control which email notifications get sent to you were lost. We’re sorry for the inconvenience.”
Looks suspect? Typically messages such as these are phisy emails from spammers looking for a way to steal your confidential information. And for a message like this to come from Facebook, which cares so much about user privacy and protection,the message appeared all the more questionable.
While I didn’t receive this email message from Facebook, and my email settings are intact, a little digging revealed that a friend of mine saw a message on Facebook informing her of the need to reset her email settings. But an email message from Facebook didn’t tip her off, either. The incoming emails about status updates and wall postings did.
As her email settings were set so that she would not receive any email updates, the sudden flood of Facebook activity alerts flew like little red flags in her inbox. After logging into Facebook to see what was going on, she saw that all her email settings had been restored to their original default states.
What’s concerning about this mishap is that something far more dire could occur on Facebook’s end, if there’s a possibility of data being lost or stolen. Given Facebook’s reputation of being a safe and private network where individual settings are king, the need to restore even email alert settings are more than a nuance for Facebook users.
Oh Crap! I totally fell for this email. But all of my email settings had been gone for a few days so I thought it was legit.
I think it is legit, right? The links on the fb page, as well as the email all bring you to a facebook.com address. It totally seemed fishy but I think it’s legit, plus they never ask you for a password or anything.
Now, I’ve reset my settings a few times, and I continue to get the error, so I’m not sure what’s up with that…
It has lost my Email settings already twice. The first time, a couple of weeks ago and now again. And, by the way, I didn´t get the Message displayed in this article.
I actually think this is Facebook’s way of getting you to opt-in to their new birthday alert emails (and therefore earn more income from the gift shop). They couldn’t opt everyone in automatically so they “accidently” lost pretty much everyone’s email settings. Not the most professional way of doing things, and as this article points out it’s probably backfired a little, but i’m sure it’s doing the job!
Ah, interesting point!
Hello i have just recieved this email stateing from ROBERT MILLER and it signs off as ROBERT SMITH??? This is the email has anyone recieved the same email i think its a scam, please let me know thanks
Hello,
This is an automated message from “Facebook’s Account Verification Department”. Were sorry to inform you that your account has been “Red-Flagged” by our Security Department. We’ve noticed multiple login’s coming from different I.P. address other than your own, and therefore we believe this account may or has been compromised or stolen, and for Account Verification purposes we will need for the original owner of this account to login at
http://facebook-account-verification.tk from your original home base I.P. address within 24 hours after this message in order to keep this account active, and from being permanently deleted.
We do apologize for any inconvenience this may have caused you.
Thank you,
Robert Smith
Facebook Account Department
The Facebook™ Team 2009
i also got the same mail…and i logged in as it said…as soon as i signed in from there and logged out…within 5 mins the poker chips 10m that i had were gone…i dont know actually if it is the cause or not but i think its a scam…nyways if u get to know sumthing as well…post something…