Viral Jayden K. Smith Facebook Message Yet Another Online Hoax
Like most Facebook users, my inbox has blown up over the past few days with messages from friends urging me not to accept a friend request from someone named, Jayden K. Smith. The reason? Supposedly Mr. Smith is a "hacker," and accepting his friendship will give him access to your account.
In case you haven't seen the message, it goes a little something like this:
Please tell all the contacts in your messenger list not to accept Jayden K. Smith friendship request. He is a hacker and has the system connected to your Facebook account. If one of your contacts accepts it, you will also be hacked, so make sure that all your friends know it. Thanks. Forwarded as received.
Hold your finger down on the message. At the bottom in the middle it will say forward. Hit that then click on the names of those in your list and it will send to them.
Hoax-busting sites like Snopes and That's Nonsense have looked into the message and said there's nothing to worry about. This is an old scare-tactic hoax that's been around nearly as long as e-mail, the only difference is the name being used.
With that said, I understand how there can be some believability to the claim. In this day and age of being connected at all times, it's opened us up to a whole new world of criminal threats. Remember the good 'ol days where if someone wanted to steal your stuff, they had to break into your house and physically take it? Ahhh, memories.
A good rule of thumb is to simply not accept friend requests from people you don't know. And if you receive a message similar to the one above, simply type the name and the word, "Facebook" into a Google search and see what you get before you blindly copy and paste it into a message to all your friends.
[Source: Snopes.com & That's Nonsense.com]