Identity Theft is a growing issue in modern society. They impersonate their victims through obtaining their personal information, giving themselves the power to access bank accounts and perform other malicious acts.Facebook has become the world's most dominant social networking site with a reported 750 million monthly active users. Facebook gives users the option of publically posting their full name, location, place of birth, birth date and other personal information, making it a gold mine for identity thieves.
Andrew Chrisholm, a reporter from The Guardian, reports about a Nigerian scammer impersonating Judy Gillis on facebook to solicit money from her friends. Soliciting money is one of the most common scams. They offer their victims a "too good to be true" offer.
Bryan Rutberg was also a victim to an identity thief, CNN reports that the scammer hacked Bryan's facebook and posted a status stating he had been robbed gunpoint in London and needed money to get back to the U.S. His friends responded by sending the scammer money thinking that it was Bryan.
Having access to a victim's personal information and account allows the scammer to assume the identity of the victim.
Deception is one of the most deadliest tools in an identity thief's arsenal.
This is definitely something to be cautious of I think. But on the other side, people sending money to their friends need to be weary to I think. I love helping out of my friends but before I sent them money, I'd have to talk to them verbally haha.
ReplyDeleteI find this so scary.. Like Che said should be very cautious about it. I have internet banking and I always check the money that comes out of it and whenever I have to give people money I'd rather withdraw the money than bank transfer it.
ReplyDeleteThat's a good approach to protecting yourself against identity thieves. I've had a friend who got "keylogged" (keylogging is when a hacker is able to download a virus into your computer and track all usernames and passwords you type in) and had his facebook, email accounts hacked into.
ReplyDeleteWhat's even scarier was that the hacker had access to his internet banking as well. Luckily he quickly cancelled everything so he was fortunate not to have lost any money. Scary :(
this is a great post, it is very informative of the risks of social networking. it also fulfills the brief of brief 2 very well by providing a lot of hyperlinks! also good use of imagery in your blog!
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