There's an alarming rise in Facebook imposters--here's what you need to doMumbai, Mar 18(AZINS) You may recognize the situation--one fine day you log into your Facebook feed and up pops a friend request from one of your closes buddies. Without sparing it a second thought, you click accept, assuming she's maybe setup a new account or added another. DON'T!

In the recent past, there have been an alarming increase in the number of Facebook accounts being hacked by imposters, hoping to gaining trust of the friends of people they've hooked.

All they require is your profile picture and your name to create a fake Facebook account. They will then send friend requests to people they find on your account usually by checking people tagged in your feeds or pictures.

From this point onward they write and post feeds under your name, after which virtually anything is possible--from obtaining information about your friends and family to even posting pornography on your account. Understandably, the repercussions of such an event can be devastating.

So if you ever get a friend request from someone you already have on your profile, it is supremely important to verify if they did indeed initiate such a request--reach out to them and find out if they did so. If they haven't, then should necessarily report the new profile as fake.

And for those of you worrying about being on the receiving end of this, be sure to update your Facebook privacy settings to ensure that your feeds and photos are only seen by people you know.
Be safe online.