Yet Another Facebook Hoax, This Time About Jayden K. Smith

When people talk about Jayden Smith, the first person that comes to mind would likely by venerable actor Will Smith’s son. However, in a recent Facebook hoax trend, the name signifies yet another attempt at inciting panic among the gullible. It basically involves warnings about avoiding a certain Jayden K. Smith, who is allegedly a hacker and is sending friend requests.

Hoaxes like this one circulating Facebook are nothing new. It’s just another item to add to the increasing list of attempts to have fun at the expense of other people’s peace of mind. As the BBC reports, the hoax is spreading from user to user by sending messages to the people on their Friend lists to warn them about the alleged hacker.

"Please tell all the contacts in your Messenger list, not to accept Jayden K Smith friendship request,” the warning would read. “He is a hacker and has the system connected to your Facebook account. If one of your contacts accepts it, you will also be hacked, so make sure that all your friends know it. Thanks. Forwarded as received."

Aside from Facebook, the hoax is trending on other social media platforms as well. The name Jayden K. Smith has already been mentioned over 4,000 times since last week.

Like Mashable pointed out, however, it becomes easy to see this hoax for what it is when people actually bother to take the time and look at the situation with a clear head. First of all, the message itself is suspicious since it contains a lot of inconsistent and ridiculous claims. Then there’s the matter of accepting a friend request along resulting in a system getting hacked, which is laughable.

For the most part, the message takes advantage of the mystique surrounding hacking. Far too many people don’t understand how it works, which makes any warning pertaining to the activity that sounds genuine seem worthy of taking seriously. As was the case before it, the Jayden K. Smith hoax is just that, a hoax.