Facebook Users Prone to Identity Fraud

Users of Facebook - a popular social networking Website - are exposed to the dangers of identity fraud by uploading their particulars online, reports BBC's television program on consumer rights, Watchdog.

According to Watchdog, aired on October 24, 2007, fraudsters could steal your particulars to open bank accounts and issue credit cards equipped with the information posted on the user's Facebook page.

Using simple information from the user's online profile like, date of birth and hometown, sufficient other information could be gathered from other publicly available web-fronts to assemble sizeable information to cause financial harm.

Credit fraud is a critical situation because it damages the credit-worthiness, as it leads to higher cost or debarment from borrowing, which can take the user years to get rid off. A flawed credit report may not even fetch him some jobs and impede the security clearances.

This same trickery can also target users of similar sites like Bebo, MySpace and others where personal details are publicly available.

Experts of Credit Bureau from Equifax recommend that at the minimum, users shouldn't pass up the full date of birth as well as the names of their pets, children or the maiden name of their mother on the Website.

As a test, the Watchdog team invented a user named 'Amba Friend' and posted an attractive cartoon picture of girl in her 20s. Thereafter, 'Amba' contacted 100 other users at random with an invitation to befriend her. Despite any remote idea about the person, 35 of those contacted immediately replied - giving the Watchdog team access to the personal details they posted on the site.

A program spokeswoman said that a lot of Facebook users tend to expand their online friends network. And in doing so, they befriend complete strangers. Users can adjust their privacy settings to safeguard information from probing fraudsters, but many users failed or didn't heed to do so, said Watchdog.

Facebook reportedly has some 200,000 people signing up daily, and its member count is over 42 Million. Last month, it decided to list its members' profiles on popular search engines like Yahoo and Google, lest a user actively withdraws from the scheme.

Related article: Facebook Users Should be Careful of a Computer Virus

» SPAMfighter News - 11/8/2007