A ‘Facebook Protect’ email has been circulating and many believed it to be a scam, but it’s actually legit. Here’s what you need to do so you don’t get locked out the app.
If you have acquired a very suspicious looking email from Meta telling you to enable Facebook Protect, it’s real, and you do need to activate Facebook Protect so as not to lose access to the social network.
Facebook Protect offers an extra barrier of security for accounts that the organisation believes to be at high risk of hacking.
It was initially created to make sure political candidates and officials were safe online from hackers and misinformation but has now been expanded to the general Facebook community.
Facebook Protect helps you set up two-factor authentication so any attempts to log into the website have to be verified by a second device, allowing for easier monitoring of potential hacking attempts.
The email states that users accounts require “advanced security”. It says:
“Your account has the potential to reach a lot more people than an average Facebook user. Hackers are often motivated to attack accounts that have a lot of followers, run important Pages, or hold some community significance.”
It then warns the user, if they do not activate Facebook Protect for their accounts, they will be locked out of Facebook until they enable the security feature.
To activate Facebook Protect, simply click the link in the email you were sent and follow the on-screen instructions.
