By Shavonne Walker

shavonne.walker@salisburypost.com

SALISBURY — There are two Nancy Stanbacks, according to social media site Facebook. One is a real Salisbury resident, and the other is a scammer.

Stanback recently discovered that someone had created a Facebook page using her images and sent friends requests to her actual friends and family.

Stanback believes the scammer’s intent, similar to an email scam, was to connect with her friends and family and tell them she’s in a foreign country and in need of money get back to the United States.

She’s not aware that any of her friends have been asked for money. She found the fake account Wednesday and it already had 50 friends, all of whom are Stanback’s actual friends and family.

“I just don’t want anybody to get scammed and send money when it’s not necessary,” she said.

The Rowan County Sheriff’s Office says it has not received reports of anyone hijacking unsuspecting people’s Facebook accounts. There’s no indication that it’s being done to break any laws, said Capt. John Sifford.

Sifford advises anyone with a Facebook profile to have a good password that is not obvious and easy for someone else to use.

Two of Stanback’s children called her and told her they’d received friends request from her. She told her children she didn’t send them.

“My son said it’s a scam,” she said.

Stanback has a message for her friends and family: “Any friend request is not from me. Any message or postings are not from me. And they should ignore it.”

A friend who is more tech-savvy visited Stanback and helped her report the fake account to Facebook.

Facebook advises the following:

• Protect your password.

• Never share login information.

• Log out when using a shared computer.

• Don’t accept friends requests from unknown people.

• Watch out for malicious software that could infect your computer with a virus.

• Never click suspicious links.

• Use extra Facebook security features such as getting notifications of unrecognized logins.

It’s also worth making sure that your privacy settings hide your personal details from users you don’t know. If your profile has already been “cloned,” report that to Facebook by going to the fake profile and selecting the report button next to the message button.

Anyone who believes someone has made a fake or cloned Facebook profile with the intent to obtain money should contact law enforcement or the N.C. Attorney General’s Office by calling 877-566-7226.