Facebook brings in the fraud squad

Facebook has decided to put its online foot down and close accounts which have been set up to scam people on the social-networking site.

In a blog post, Facebook admitted there's been an increase in fraudulent accounts being set-up for phishing and 419 scams, but promised it was on top of taking the perpetrators down.

"Recently we have noticed an increase in scams where people's login information is collected through phishing sites and then their accounts are accessed without permission to ask friends for money," said Facebook's Alok Menghrajani.

"While the total number of people who have been impacted is small, we take any threat to security seriously and are redoubling our efforts to combat the scam."

Working with law enforcement

Some of the ways the site is doing this is tightening its security belt and informing the police wherever possible.

"We have improved a number of our automated systems to better handle this unique class of scam and are taking efforts to ensure that we adapt our response to the scam as it changes," explained Menghrajani.

"At the same time, our security team is working with law enforcement and collaborating with email providers and other industry experts to identify and catch the criminals responsible. Western Union also is working closely with law enforcement on scams such as this one."

If you want to know more about Facebook's security, then point your browser to www.facebook.com/security.