The next time you see a post asking you to copy and paste, think twice before doing so.
The people who create these are out to scam unsuspecting victims, sometimes using information found in these ‘copy and paste’ Facebook statuses. You may have gotten a friend request in the past from a clone account, usually a clone of someone you are already friends with on Facebook. The original poster can then access this information, some of which may be used as passwords. These are usually disguised as “Discover your superhero name” posts, possibly to avoid attracting suspicion. Many of the posts will encourage you to share certain personal information such as your name, the street you live on, your pet’s name, and so on. Mum causes uproar with viral Facebook post about why she teaches her son NOT to share.
They can then target these people for further scams. A new tab will appear in the keyboard with a list of copied content from a Windows 10 PC. If people are sharing their message, they can search this phrase or word and find out who is posting their message. Some of these ‘copy and paste’ posts contain a phrase or misspelled word which is easily searchable for the original poster (and potential scammer). Think twice before agreeing to copy and paste a friend's post instead of sharing. This means the original poster can delete their post - their message still spreads but it cannot be traced back to them. But if you copy and paste the post and the original post gets deleted, it will not affect yours. If you share a post and the original post gets deleted, then it will disappear from your own timeline. To protect the identity of the original poster The original poster wants to message to be spread as far as possible, so encourages people to copy and paste it as their own so that more people see it and do the same. If you share a friend’s post, it may not reach as many people as it would if you had copy and pasted it, if their own profile has restrictions on who can see their posts.