"A meek endeavor to the triumph" by Sampath Jayarathna

Friday, August 03, 2012

How to stop email notification "You requested a new Facebook password"

Lately I was getting at least couple of these notifications "You requested a new Facebook password" and sometimes more than ten email notifications per day. Also I guess because I have couple of emails associated with my account, this each notification get forwarded to all of my email accounts.



I think this is another way of spamming these days, and you need to be cautious dealing with these and most probably these are some of newer ways to steal your account information or to take you to some phishing sites.

Facebook for Dummies By Abram, Carolyn/ Pearlman, Leah (Google Affiliate Ad)

I remember some of similar phishing attacks,
1. You get an email from (or similar to) your bank saying that you need to change your password for security  purposes. If you respond with your account details (most probably with the form given with email), somebody else is getting this or it will take you to a phishing site. Always remember to check the email address and the URL (whether the additional s like in https:\\ whether this is a secure transaction).
2. You get an email from someone who wants to transfer millions/billions of dollars worth of money or gold or some hidden treasure. If you initiate any discussion, they will ask you some money for initial processing or some paper work. Same thing with big lottery win notifications. Be cautious, no body going to give you a free money unless this is one of your own relatives :)

Mark Zuckerberg and Facebook By Hasday, Judy L. (Google Affiliate Ad)

OK, back to Facebook notification. What is this and should we do something about it? Again, be careful when you responding to even official emails from facebook. There may be a catch somewhere. This is just my opinion, but if you have some other information different from what I suspect here, please do reply.

The email notification is seems to originate from facebook and seems legit,

Hi Sampath,

You recently asked to reset your Facebook password. To complete your request, please follow this link:

https://www.facebook.com/recover.php?.........................

Alternately, you may go to https://www.facebook.com/recover.php and enter the following password reset code:

 xxxxxxx 
Please note: for your protection, this email has been sent to all the email addresses associated with your Facebook account.

*Didn't Request This Change?*
If you did not request a new password, let us know at:

https://www.facebook.com/login/recover/disavow_reset_email.php?........

Thanks,
The Facebook Team

OK, here's what I think what is this. Your facebook account associated emails and publicly visible, anybody can record one and try to modify your password. But for any password change to work, you need to click the given url or enter the password reset code at facebook. But what is the catch here, if you do one of above, you don't know the password but somebody else now knows both your user account login email and password. Now he owns your facebook account. Done deal!.

Facebook for Grown-Ups by Miller, Michael [Paperback] (Google Affiliate Ad)

If this is not what I'm suspecting, it may be a phishing email, and eventually take you to some bogus site. I don't want to click and check, so be my guest if you want to check and let me know :)

Now the real problem, you know that you didn't initiate the change of password or how to avoid getting these emails or avoid anybody trying to modify your password in the first place. Simple, just change your email visibility in facebook account. Here's how to do that.

If you have new facebook timeline, just click on your profile and then click "Update Info" right under your cover picture. Then goto Contact Details and click Edit. Now you can see all your email addresses and then the visibility options. Change each emails to "Only Me" or "Friends". I advice your to make it "Only Me", because even friends (you think) can trick you (may be your Ex-)  to take control your account.  Also remember to hid emails from your timeline. If your real friends want to contact you, then they should know how to find you, so no worries!

The Facebook Guide for People Over 50 By McFedries, Paul (Google Affiliate Ad)

1 comment:

Sampath Jayarathna said...

I'm not really sure. I still get these emails, so I dont think my solution works. If anybody knows a way to do this, please comment. Thanks