THINK TWICE BEFORE YOU CLICK ON THAT!

Members of Facebook, Twitter or any other social networking site, you have been warned; you could be the next targeted victim.  There is a goldmine of personal information on social networking sites and cyber-thieves are cashing in on it.  Don’t let them get your information – think twice before you click on that!

All you have do is click it, and you’ll open up that hilarious video of Aunt Bunny falling down the stairs at the family cook-out, it’s just a harmless funny video that your best Facebook buddy wanted you to see;  However when that message or link is opened, the user is lured to fake Web sites that trick them into divulging personal details and passwords.  The phishing attack can penetrate the users’ accounts without their knowledge or consent.  And once that happens, the thieves can continue to penetrate the users’ list of friends or contacts and repeat the attack on consequent victims.

Although you may only hear of a small percentage, malicious thieves are constantly attacking social networking sites.  The continued growth of users on the social networks has made the networks extremely profitable for cyber-criminals and with Facebook users boasting of 150 friends or more; it’s like a smorgasbord of potential victims for the cyber-thieves.

Internet crimes have been around since the inception of the World Wide Web, and malicious software and viruses were usually the result of a prank.  But now, the most common form of malware attack has become known as drive-by downloads. While surfing on Google or Yahoo, a computer virus or spyware is automatically and invisibly downloaded on a computer, requiring no interaction from the user for the computer to be infected.

Not since the abundance of social networking sites and their members has internet crime been so prevalent.  Facebook alone boast that it has a whopping 300 million users, and Twitter, a micro-social-blogging site, has grown to more than 7 million users.

Be mindful of the enticements rampant on such sites as Facebook; you know the ones, claiming that one of your friends has the highest IQ score of the day of 140; he/she wants you to try to beat it.  When they’ve never even seen the quiz let along taken it and challenged you.  Also are those never ending applications that “need to access your account information” in order for you to continue or use it.  And we all know too well from the countless media reports that putting personal photos on any public domain is risky – that innocent pic of you on the sofa is easily Photoshop to show you nude in a compromising situation – for resale on a porn site.

There are a number of reasons Cybercriminals are using phishing attacks, including trying to obtain private information, such as bank account numbers and passwords to perform even greater scams. They also try to redirect users to sites where profit is feed by the number of visitors.  There was even a phishing attack involving one of the popular social sites in which a duplicate of their widely recognized light blue page was used in a hoax. To avoid situations such as this, users should always double-check the URL to ensure they are visiting the correct site.

Social networks are aggressively fighting back against the attacks from cybercriminals. Most sites have information pages dedicated to educating users about the risks of Internet scams. One of the most common pieces of advice given by security experts is to change passwords frequently.  Facebook has also developed complex automated systems that detect compromised accounts. They spot and freeze accounts that are sending an unusually high number of messages to their friends; and will even go as far as to delete the account.  Ultimately users must be responsible and utilize care while on the Internet, especially when exchanging personal information.  I’m not telling you to delete your social network accounts, just suggesting you use caution while socializing.  If you didn’t request it, or recognize it, think twice before you click on it!

Helpful hints (Provided by FBI and Internet security experts) to protect you against internet scams:

• Be careful what you click on
• Change your passwords frequently
• Adjust Web site privacy settings
• Be selective when adding friends
• Limit access to your profile to contacts you trust
• Disable options such as photo sharing
• Learn how &  report a compromised account
• Use security software that updates automatically

If you should ever find yourself the unfortunate victim of Internet Fraud/Theft, here are some links that may be helpful.

• Internet Crime Complaint Center: http://www.ic3.gov/default.aspx
• FBI-Internet Crime: http://www.fbi.gov/majcases/fraud/internetschemes.htm
• Bankersonline Identity theft: http://www.bankersonline.com/security/aandc.html
• ID Fraud Phishing: http://www.bankersonline.com/idtheft/idtheft.html