Recently I almost got hooked into a government loan fraud scheme through Facebook.

Here is how it works: Someone you know, like Bill Smith, sends a friend request.

You know Bill, you thought you were already connected to Bill, but you accept the friend request anyway. Maybe Bill is just updating his page and you see he has five to ten friends on his page.

Then you get a Facebook message about how Bill just got a $200,000 government loan (or any amount) that does not need to be repaid.

Bill got this loan from Marvin Scheister and suggests you would qualify and should connect with Marvin.

Marvin tells you he can get the loan for you if you qualify, and he only needs to ask a few questions, like your date of birth, social security number, and address.

All he needs is enough information to steal your identity.

When I contacted the real Bill Smith he confirmed he did NOT send a friend request and had 400 friends on his page.

I then reported the attempted fraud to Facebook and both the fake Bill and Marvin’s pages were taken down.

A week later I received another friend request from Mark N. I reached out to him right away and confirmed he did not send a friend request to me, and that we are already connected.

If you have the slightest feeling that something is not right, please reach out to your “real” friend and confirm their request.

To Your Prosperity,

Rennie