Turn on Facebook Protect: Is the email from Facebook asking you to turn on Advanced Protection real and how to turn it on?

THE ISSUE: Facebook is asking you to turn on “Advanced Protection” and sending you emails that say things like: “Turn on Advanced Protection for your account by [insert date]. After that, you will be locked out of your account until you enable it.”

 

The email we received came from security@facebookmail.com and has a subject line “Turn on Facebook Protect” with a heading that reads:
“Your account requires extra security through Advanced Protection”

 

 

QUESTION: Have you received emails from Facebook with the subject: “Turn on Facebook Protect?” Is this email from Facebook real?

 

You might be wondering if this security email, seemingly from Facebook, is legit or a scam.

 

THE ANSWER: The “Facebook Protect” email you received may or may not be real (Facebook is apparently sending these emails to people BUT scammers could also fake their own versions of these emails) BUT the setting, called “Advanced Protection,” is real and here is how to check to see if you have it turned on or off.

 

We checked into this email from Facebook and confirmed that the one we received (about Facebook’s “Advanced Protection”) is legitimate and is not a scam.

 

HOWEVER, because bad actors can (and will) spoof real company emails, DO NOT CLICK ANYTHING IN AN EMAIL UNLESS YOU KNOW 100% FOR CERTAIN THAT IT IS LEGIT AND NOT A SCAMMER!!!  This should be your mantra for any and all emails!  Never click the link in the email – always open the web URL of the company directly and then verify from there (because if you open the site directly, you know it is the real site and not a spoofed site you got to via a fake link. AND PS… do not search for a site if you know the URL – type the complete URL into the browser and hit “enter” rather than searching for a site and then clicking from the search results.  Why?  Because fake sites can pop up in searches.  If you want to go to Facebook.com, enter “Facebook.com” not just “Facebook” because adding the extension should open the site directly instead of just doing a search for it. If that is as clear as mud, let me know in the comments that you’d like a full post on this and I will clarify further and give examples!).

 

Instead of clicking links in the email, open your Facebook account directly (go to facebook.com or open the Facebook app) and do the following steps to see if you have “Advanced Protection” turned on or off:

THE STEPS:

How to turn on Advanced Protection in Facebook:

 

1. Click your profile picture in the top right of Facebook.
2. Click Settings & Privacy (from the drop-down menu that appears), then click Settings.
3. Click Accounts Center (left column on page), then click Password and security.
4. Click click Password and security again under Account Settings.
5. See the Advanced Protection section (it’s in the middle of the page)… if already set to “On” then no action needed (although you can click it and go through the settings to update them if needed). If it is set to “Off” then click this and go through the settings to turn it on.

 

Here are screenshots depicting the steps above: