DEAR HARRIETTE: I’m getting so confused with social media these days. Two so-called “friends” just wrote to me asking to become my friend on Facebook. I felt sure that we were already friends, but I was busy, so I accepted without checking. The next thing I know, I’m getting direct messages from one of them that seem weird. When I looked at her page, it got even stranger. The messages on the page were in patois. This woman is American and, to my knowledge, only speaks English. I called my friend, and she told me her account had been hacked. It’s so creepy how people can do that. How can I protect myself better to avoid this kind of thing in the future? -- Hacked, Boston
DEAR HACKED: You can report the hacking of your friend to Facebook. You can make your page private rather than public. In this way, you control who gets to see your page or access it in any way. From now on, do not accept any friend requests without first checking to see if you have already friended that person. Also, check out the person’s page first. This will give you an indication of whether the person is who she or he is claiming to be, and whether you would like to be connected.
(Harriette Cole is a lifestylist and founder of DREAMLEAPERS, an initiative to help people access and activate their dreams. You can send questions to askharriette@harriettecole.com or c/o Andrews McMeel Syndication, 1130 Walnut St., Kansas City, MO 64106.)