Spoofers put up a new profile on a site and use your profile photo and friend list to create a new account, and send friend requests to everybody on your friend list, assuming that some of your friends will think that it is a new account of yours and just automatically click on it. Sometimes they will sent out Messenger requests.
They are not hackers. Hackers actually have to have some skills and knowledge. All spoofers need is your profile photo, which is public to the everybody, and your friend list.
How do you keep them from choosing you to spoof? Make your friend list private. They have no reason to spoof you if they cannot access that. It is also a good idea to have your photos set to "friends only", as they will not have alternative photos of you to use for a new profile. If you set most or all of your posts to "friends only", they will have lost another way to get the names of your friends, although gleaning them one at a time would not be very productive for them.
If you get a friend request or a Messenger request from someone who you thought was already on your friend list, do not automatically click on it. Go see if their old profile is still up, ask if they started a new profile, or even just wait awhile to see if somebody else posts about the issue.
If you do get spoofed, please notify Facebook. They usually take the account down.
If you did get fooled and friend a spoofer, they now have your friend list if it was set to let friends view it. It might be in your best interests to post a note telling people not to accept friend requests from any new account of yours, or Messenger requests, as it will not be you.
