Identity Thieves are out to get you on Facebook/Bebo......

dame

Well folks, here's another reason to avoid getting sucked into the Facebook/Bebo thing:

http://www.rte.ie/news/2007/1024/facebook.html

I always knew those things were bad!

So how many of you have added random people as your friends just cos they asked you to? Come on now, be honest!

John Mason

i have never added a random person, why would you ??

Slow Motion

I could never see the point of Buboe or any of those others

cornbb

cornbb's simple guide to safety on Facebook:

- Edit your privacy settings so everything is visible to friends only.
- Don't add people who aren't actually your friends.

Anyone who doesn't follow these steps is asking for trouble.

Dave!

Never added a random person

cornbb

cornbb wrote: »

cornbb's simple guide to safety on Facebook:

- Edit your privacy settings so everything is visible to friends only.
- Don't add people who aren't actually your friends.

Anyone who doesn't follow these steps is asking for trouble.

I think it is naive to think that people who are your friends, no matterhow close, will aways have good intentions towards you.
Keep your private info private.
I always use a false D.O.B on the net.

GhostInTheRuins

Tough **** really. If you're stupid enough to give out details like your dob, address, phone number etc, you deserve everything you get.

Rhiannon14

D.T. Jesus wrote: »

Tough **** really. If you're stupid enough to give out details like your dob, address, phone number etc, you deserve everything you get.

Yeah, down with all the grannies! RAWR!

dame

Well there are obviously people out there who do add people they don't know as friends, 35% of the random sample done by the BBC.

muppetkiller

How can people get credit cards with your name,date of birth and your favorite movies ?
Surely you need way more than that. What kind of muppet puts there personal details on these pages anyway...e.g.
Hi My name is blah blah I live at blah blah and my bank account details are...
More media nonsense if you ask me.

jester77

muppetkiller wrote: »

How can people get credit cards with your name,date of birth and your favorite movies ?
Surely you need way more than that. What kind of muppet puts there personal details on these pages anyway...e.g.
Hi My name is blah blah I live at blah blah and my bank account details are...
More media nonsense if you ask me.

Fairly easy. You only need a few basic details to obtain a copy of someone's birth cert. From there it's relatively easy to open a bank a/c and obtain a credit card with that persons details.

The Gnome

muppetkiller wrote: »

How can people get credit cards with your name,date of birth and your favorite movies ?

Indeed, I recently open a new account and every bank I checked out required a utility bill and a copy of your drivers license / passport. Same for a credit card.

Good old scaremongering!

ScumLord

Ya I applied for a card recently and hap to send passport/drivers licence, bank statements, A pay slip, they rang me on more than one occasion. If you have all those details on your myspace account then your just a tool and deserve whatever happens to you.

irishbird

irishbird wrote: »

i have never added a random person, why would you ??

Indeed, I've never added randomers.
And I'm pretty sure mine's viewable to friends only

Cheese Princess

Some people probably just want to look more popular by having a huge number of "friends".
Surely the whole point of facebook is to catch up with people you've lost touch with. That's what I use it for anyway.

Wossack

I think you'll find that the 35% of the people who instantly accepted that watchdog invitation where identity thieves/scammers/spammers/stalkers/perverts etc

the other 65% are just on a different timezone..

leninbenjamin

dame wrote: »

So how many of you have added random people as your friends just cos they asked you to? Come on now, be honest!

seeing as you've actually done that i think you thoroughly deserve to have your identity stolen on merit of sheer stupidity.

aidan_walsh

The Gnome wrote: »

Indeed, I recently open a new account and every bank I checked out required a utility bill and a copy of your drivers license / passport. Same for a credit card.

Good old scaremongering!

I couldn't open a flippin' Xtravision account recently without either of these, let alone a bank account.

layke

bluewolf wrote: »

Indeed, I've never added randomers.
And I'm pretty sure mine's viewable to friends only

FFS that's why.

cornbb

I think another big problem with these sites is people checking up on you/stalking you/whatever you want to call it. Apparently a lot of companies are screening prospective employees by checking out their profiles. Plus what if your boss decides to "friend" you? Do you accept and allow him/her to see everything you've been up to or do you reject and look like you've got something to hide?

Tzetze

I don't use myspace/facebook/bebo/etc either, but for people who do; be wary of people who ask seemingly harmless questions in conversation. Things like "My pet's name is Fido, what's yours?" Or "Hey, I can still remember my first teacher's name, how awesome is that? Bet you can't remember yours."

Password reminder, security questions. The answers to which are very easily socially engineered.

the_syco

Pay slip: made on the PC €1
Birth cert: obtained with your name and DoB €5
Passport: obtained with you birth cert, and a photo €40
Credit Card in someone else's name: priceless

There's somethings money can't buy, for everything else, there are the fumb f**kers who'll give out info.

aidan_walsh

cornbb wrote:

Apparently a lot of companies are screening prospective employees by checking out their profiles.

Companies should have the right to know if they're hiring prats or not.

Anyway, you put the information out there. If you don't want people to be able to see it, put the profile on private, or don't open an account. Why are people suddenly acting surprised that other people are able to see it?

An Citeog

Yeah, it seems to be a pretty standard procedure worldwide (or at least within the EU when opening a bank account. You need your passport or some other form of ID (drivers licence or national ID card) and the bank are obliged to keep a photocopy.

I use Facebook and still have a Bebo account but don't use it anymore. I've never added someone I don't know and don't exactly go broadcasting all of my personal details. That's why Facebook is far superior to Bebo. You can only see the profiles of the people in your own network rather than any randomer, as is the case with Bebo.

Fighting Irish

So they can rob my identity just by having my name and age?

:rolleyes:

Rhiannon14

You reject it automatically, just like professor friend requests. There's nothing to hide, it's just a conflict of interest.

cornbb

aidan_walsh wrote: »

Companies should have the right to know if they're hiring prats or not.

Anyway, you put the information out there. If you don't want people to be able to see it, put the profile on private, or don't open an account. Why are people suddenly acting surprised that other people are able to see it?

Well thats my point, people should keep all this info private to stop it from getting in the wild. If I were a prospective employer, just being able to see lots of someone's personal details in public would be enough to put me off them.

humanji

Fighting Irish wrote: »

So they can rob my identity just by having my name and age?

:rolleyes:

Actually, yes, they can.

halfinch

ah sure tis nice to be nice....always say thanks and usually greet someone if they are walking towards me...i live in a small enough town though...i wouldnt in the big smoke....waaaaaaaaaaaay too scary

aidan_walsh

cornbb wrote:

If I were a prospective employer, just being able to see lots of someone's personal details in public would be enough to put me off them.

Then don't go looking for it if its only going to bother you. That really says more about you than it does about either people with social networking accounts or the services themselves, tbh.

dame

halfinch wrote: »

ah sure tis nice to be nice....always say thanks and usually greet someone if they are walking towards me...i live in a small enough town though...i wouldnt in the big smoke....waaaaaaaaaaaay too scary

You're in the wrong thread Sunshine.

halfinch

that kind of jumped into the wrong thread somehow

Mark200

Yous can call me stupid or naive all yous want, but I'm not going to be afraid to post my name and date of birth on the internet because there's a chance some guy might find my page among millions of users and then decide for some reason to steal my identity. I don't accept random people, and I don't add random people. But that's only because it's weird, my bebo profile is on public anyway.
I'm 17, it's not like I'm going to have a huge sum of money lying in a bank account somwhere.
So what, they accepted her as a friend. OH NO. Who says any of the people that accepted her even had personal details on their page? What defines 'personal details' anyway?
These?:
Full Name: I have no problem giving out
Age/DOB: No problem
Address: Never give out, unless I know the person or I've been talking to them for months/years and know they are reliable.
Phone Number: Sometimes, depends.
Bank Details: ehh...no. Obviously not, I don't think anyone is that stupid.

dame

Tzetze wrote: »

I don't use myspace/facebook/bebo/etc either, but for people who do; be wary of people who ask seemingly harmless questions in conversation. Things like "My pet's name is Fido, what's yours?" Or "Hey, I can still remember my first teacher's name, how awesome is that? Bet you can't remember yours."

Password reminder, security questions. The answers to which are very easily socially engineered.

Good point Tzetze.

There are websites you could be trying to log into but you could answer the person's security question, then click on (I no longer have access to this email address", give a new email address instead and get their password sent to you (or the fake hotmail account you've set up). For example, lots of shopping websites (which I love) store credit card details, billing addresses and delivery addresses.

biko

Reading the Facebook terms http://www.facebook.com/terms.php

By posting User Content to any part of the Site, you automatically grant, and you represent and warrant that you have the right to grant, to the Company an irrevocable, perpetual, non-exclusive, transferable, fully paid, worldwide license (with the right to sublicense) to use, copy, publicly perform, publicly display, reformat, translate, excerpt (in whole or in part) and distribute such User Content for any purpose on or in connection with the Site or the promotion thereof, to prepare derivative works of, or incorporate into other works, such User Content, and to grant and authorize sublicenses of the foregoing. You may remove your User Content from the Site at any time. If you choose to remove your User Content, the license granted above will automatically expire, however you acknowledge that the Company may retain archived copies of your User Content.

What this means folks, if you have uploaded any images, films, mail or real addresses, interests etc all that info is now and forever the property of Facebook. Facebook can use these images and addresses for any purpose, like spamming you depending on your interests or using your pics in ads. Facebook can also sell your stuff to anyone they please.

Newly-released statistics for social networking site Facebook have revealed 131,000 Irish registered users, up a massive 125,000 since January 2007.

Rhyme

I added Terry on Bebo, am i at risk?

Wossack

Rhyme wrote: »

I added Terry on Bebo, am i at risk?

..of Terry?

very much so

Good luck to them since almost every bit of info I have given about myself on both bebo and facebook is completely tongue in cheek!

jor el

Mark200 wrote: »

I'm 17, it's not like I'm going to have a huge sum of money lying in a bank account somwhere.

Unless you're Peter Pan then you won't stay 17 for much longer than 12 months. Anyway, identity theft isn't about taking your money from your bank account, it's about using your identity to get loans and credit cards that you eventually have to pay. It will also be up to you to prove that you didn't get these loans or cards and that you were the victim of identity theft. This can take years to sort out.

Unless you're a moron, you'll not put personal information on a public website.

Bank Details: ehh...no. Obviously not, I don't think anyone is that stupid.

Many, many people, are exactly that stupid. This is why scamming is so popular. It works because some people are stupid and greedy.