You just received a friend request on Facebook from someone who’s already a friend

One in a series of posts on Facebook Security and Privacy

First off, don’t panic! Almost certainly your friend has not “been hacked”. Instead an annoying person has just created a new Facebook account and copied your friend’s profile picture and name, and is presumably now going through their friend list asking to become friends.

What can you do?

Use the Facebook “Report” function to let your friend know.

Open the fake profile page (Just click on the name. Don’t click on Confirm Request!)
Click on the ‘…’ button (to the right of the Message button), then click Report.
Select Report this profile and click Continue
Select They're pretending to be me or someone I know and click Continue
Select Someone I know and click Continue
Select Message your friend
Type in your friend’s name. Your friend’s existing Facebook profile should be listed.
Click Send.
You friend will receive a Facebook message with a link to the offending profile and they can follow it up by reporting it to Facebook.

If you’re particularly concerned, at step 6 you can also choose Submit to Facebook for Review. You will then be asked to select your friend’s real Facebook profile and send it off to Facebook.