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Criminals Know When You’re Away, If You Tell Them

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It’s funny that when you go on vacation, you do what you can to make your home appear that someone is still living there, even though the house is going to be empty for the next two or three weeks. You arrange to have your newspapers discontinued, you get a friend to pick up your mail, and you use automated timers to turn lights on and off (at random times) to make it appear that you’re still home.

But to the smart criminal, who might be casing your home, advertising on your Facebook page about your camping trip, Hawaiian vacation, or other excursion is just the sort of information that tells them when they can break in.

Now, it might sound overly paranoid to think that someone is waiting to find out when you are leaving on holidays, but if you think like a criminal, all they need to do is scan through a few hundred Facebook accounts, find some suitable names of people that live in their targeted area, find some key information on their open and public profile page about where they live (and match it up with information available in the telephone book), and learn when and where that person is traveling.

If I know that you’re going to Maui on the Labor Day long weekend, and that you live in Renton, Washington, and I already have your name and address, it doesn’t take much (if you’re a thief) to know when is the best time to strike.

The idea might seem preposterous, but criminals use these details every day to commit crimes, whether if it’s for a home break-in, an office robbery, or some other criminal act. The point is, that personal information just provides more useful details to the criminal elements who are looking for any advantage when planning a crime. Your Facebook account is just one more source of useful information for crooks.

Written on 25 August 2008 by admin under Facebook Privacy with No Comments
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More News About Facebook Identity Theft

You don’t need to look very hard to find horror stories about Facebook identity theft. We already know how vulnverable your personal information can be, especially if it’s posted openly on your freely available profile page. It doesn’t take much for a poacher to put two and two together to get enough details (including your birthday) about you to use to apply for credit.

And it doesn’t even need to be a big credit purchase, or a fraudulent VISA or Mastercard. It’s fairly easy for a crook to assimilate your ID, and use it to rent movies from the video store, or sign out books from the library. While you might not be liable for anything charged against you or applied against your accounts, the inconvenience alone is enough to cause you a headache.

Again, the best thing you can do to protect yourself is to lock your Facebook profile so that only “trusted” friends can view your details. Even better, only put limited information in your account at all, so that poaching fraudsters can’t obtain enough information about you to use to create bogus credit cards, credit accounts, and other forms of identity theft.

It’s like parking your car at the mall. You know the thieves are out there and that they’re going to break into someone’s vehicle. The key is to make your vehicle look less attractive to steal than the other vehicles. While it’s likely going to be impossible to prevent someone from stealing information through Facebook, if your information is difficult to find, then they’ll just look somewhere else.

Written on 23 August 2008 by admin under Facebook Privacy with No Comments
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Facebook Is A Target For Scammers

Facebook Fraudsters Reach New Low

There was a very disappointing article in Canadian newspapers the other day where someone impersonated the sister of a murder victim in order to ingratiate themselves to sympathetic Facebook members.

The person pretended to be a grieving sibling in order to solicit money as part of a relief fund, hoping to get money out of Facebook members who were willing to help out. Thankfully, the scammer was discovered, and the impact was minimized, but the fact that people can use Facebook (or any other Internet medium) to impersonate others, grabbing readily-available information from personal profiles and other public web pages makes the Internet just a little bit more unsafe.

If you insist on putting a lot of personal information on your Facebook profile, ensure that your profile is protected, only available to your friends. Even then, don’t expect it to be private, as there are loopholes and other ways to access your details.

Certainly, before you open up your wallet, you should ensure that the money you intend to donate goes to the proper recipient, hopefully through a registered charity or organization, and not some online scumbag.

Written on 21 August 2008 by admin under Facebook Fraud with No Comments
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Facebook A Danger To Soldiers

This story on Wired about how Facebook Threatens Soldiers is just one more reason to stay out of (or keep private) the details of your personal life, and more importantly your military life.

The story explains that soldiers can put themselves at greater risk because the “enemy” (not Facebook) can access the Internet just as well as everyone else, and war photos, profile information, wall posts, and other seemingly innocent content can reveal volumes of information and create potential danger to those serving in countries such as Iraq or Afghanistan.

Social networking sites such as Facebook can be exploited by those wishing to cause terror, havoc, or other problems for military personnel, as even the smallest bit of intelligence can be used to advantage.

Brig. Gen. Peter Atkinson stated in the article that “80 percent” of enemy “battle damage assessment[s]” are from online sources like Facebook.

Of course, conspiracy theorists and propaganda specialists would likely argue that the amount of misinformation on the Internet could cause more problems and confusion for the enemy than the actual facts.

Written on 01 August 2008 by admin under with No Comments
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Facebook Could Cost You A Job

Employers Shouldn’t Be Poking Around Your Facebook

facebook job resumeThere are a lot of questions surrounding the boundaries that employers or potential employers should have regarding your personal life, whether the information comes up during your employment, or during the hiring process. If you have nothing to hide, then that’s swell, but your Facebook speaks volumes that don’t appear on your job resume.

When an employer researches potential candidates, Google and other search engines are a powerful tool for finding out previous employment history or other character traits of job applicants. And Facebook is a pure resource for finding out anything and everything about a person’s past and present. Even Business Week writes about the dangers of Facebook, as it’s an open book for employers to find out more dirty details about people before they hire them.

Now having a Facebook profile open to your new boss might be a show of trust and honesty, those New Year’s party pictures could cost you that promotion!

Written on 29 July 2008 by admin under Facebook Rants with No Comments
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