iWorld
Facebook scamsters now using duplicate IDs for ‘friend in need’ con
MUMBAI: Facebook users beware! There’s a scam gathering pace once again on the social network. And the deceivers are borrowing it from the email phishers who conned many an unsuspecting innocent in the past. At that time, the rogues would pretend to be someone else you knew, and would send you an email sounding desperate, asking you for money as they were in a spot. Many got suckered and parted with their cash.
In the case of Facebook, the con is about these fraudsters creating a duplicate account of individuals and then putting out friends’ requests to the original account owner’s network. The page looks exactly like the original account with similar pictures; the only difference, the fake account has less friends and family connections.
Once someone adds the fake account as a friend, the impostor keeps asking you for money via Facebook messenger urgently in multiples of Rs 15,000, saying he is in a spot of bother. The first option, he urges you, is to transfer money via Google Pay, the second via PhonePe. And then he is even open to getting the cash to his phone through bank transfer via Airtel Payments Bank.
All along, he keeps sticking to his tone of familiarity – since he has stolen the identity of someone you know – and urgency, saying he is in the hospital with a friend who has met with a major accident.
The only way to find out if it is a swindle that’s about to happen is to have a strong heart and not fall for it. Call the original Facebook account holder and ask him or her whether he or she really needs the money. And that will break the cheater’s fake story.
Many have fallen for this hustle and lost their dough. And there’s no getting it back. For once, you transfer the money, it’s gone. The wheeler dealer deletes the fake account quickly or makes it private. Even his direct messages to you vanish into thin air. And you are that much poorer for your goodness to help someone you thought was a friend or family member in need.
So please tread with caution when someone on a social network asks you for money; don’t say we did not warn you.
iWorld
Meta plans 8,000 layoffs in new AI-led restructuring wave
First phase from May 20 may cut 10 per cent workforce amid AI pivot.
MUMBAI: At Meta, the future may be artificial but the cuts are very real. The social media giant is reportedly preparing a fresh round of layoffs, with an initial wave expected to impact around 8,000 employees as it doubles down on its artificial intelligence ambitions. According to a Reuters report, the first phase of job cuts is slated to begin on May 20, targeting roughly 10 per cent of Meta’s global workforce. With nearly 79,000 employees on its rolls as of December 31, the move marks one of the company’s most significant workforce reductions in recent years.
And this may only be the beginning. Sources indicate that additional layoffs are being planned for the second half of the year, although the scale and timing remain fluid, likely to be shaped by how Meta’s AI capabilities evolve in the coming months. Earlier reports had suggested that total cuts in 2026 could reach 20 per cent or more of its workforce.
The restructuring comes as chief executive Mark Zuckerberg continues to steer the company towards an AI-first operating model, committing hundreds of billions of dollars to the transition. Internally, this shift is already visible: teams within Reality Labs have been reorganised, engineers have been moved into a newly formed Applied AI unit, and a Meta Small Business division has been created to align with broader structural changes.
The trend is hardly isolated. Across the tech sector, companies are trimming headcount while investing aggressively in automation. Amazon, for instance, has reportedly cut around 30,000 corporate roles nearly 10 per cent of its white-collar workforce citing efficiency gains driven by AI. Data from Layoffs.fyi shows over 73,000 tech employees have already lost jobs this year, compared with 153,000 in all of 2024.
For Meta, the move echoes its earlier “year of efficiency” in 2022–23, when about 21,000 roles were eliminated amid slowing growth and market pressures. This time, however, the backdrop is different. The company is financially stronger, generating over $200 billion in revenue and $60 billion in profit last year, with shares up 3.68 per cent year-to-date though still below last summer’s peak.
That contrast underlines the shift underway. These layoffs are less about survival and more about reinvention. As Meta restructures itself around AI from autonomous coding agents to advanced machine learning systems, the question is no longer whether the company will change, but how many roles will be left unchanged when it does.
