While
online scams have been
largely relegated to e-mail over the years, con artists are now employing
social-networking sites as the venues for their crimes, Business Week reports.
Last year, according to the FBI and the National White Collar Crime Center, cyber criminals stole a total of $239 million, 21-percent more than the year prior. Of the cyber crime cases reported last year, those perpetrated on Web pages comprised nearly one-third, compared to a mere 16.5-percent in 2005.
The increasing popularity of social networking sites, which altogether claim over 689 million members, certainly helps to explain these statistics.
In some sense, the personal, light-hearted tone of sites like
Facebook might make scams more convincing. Shawn Henry, the assistant director of the FBI's Cyber Investigations division, told Business Week, "There is an implied sense of trust, and there's not the sense that we can be physically harmed."
But, while profile pictures and a list of favorite books might make you feel more connected to a friend, they are also easily forged. With only a little bit of personal knowledge and access to a
Flickr page, the most novice of networking site users can impersonate another individual, potentially gaining access to that individual's friends -- and their pocketbooks. There have been reports of scam artists posing as an individual's Facebook friend, only to then ask that individual to wire the scammer a sum of money. In at least one instance, the con artist went so far as to instant message the potential victim in an attempt to more fully assume the friend's identity.
While some experts suggest scrutinizing profiles and asking personal questions before engaging an alleged friend, we have a simpler rule: Don't transmit anything serious, let alone sensitive, over social networking sites.
E-mail is problematic enough. For tips on avoiding ID Theft specifically, check out our
brand-spanking-new video primer. [From:
Business Week]
