Facebook's Hidden Identity Theft Dangers
Congratulations all Facebook users! The amount your identity is worth has now doubled since we last wrote Your Identity Is Worth About 40 Bucks.
VeriSign's ID Defense unit has found an underground hacker forum offering Facebook accounts for around $25 each if you have 10 contacts or less. But if you've got more than 10 'friends', your account value jumps to about $45.
Ok, all kidding aside, that is a very serious situation because over 700,000 accounts have been sold. and 1.5 million are on the market. FB has admitted the hacked accounts are being used in many schemes including money transfer scams. Facebook just isn't very secure and all the activities we like to do on it make us more vulnerable. Even if you're very careful, a careless friend can accidentally expose your info.
Here are five dangers lurking on FB according to Joan Goodchild, senior editor of CSO Online.
- Your information is being shared with third parties
- Privacy settings revert to a less safe default mode after each redesign
- Facebook ads may contain malware
- Your real friends unknowingly make you vulnerable
- Scammers are creating fake profiles
The US government run Internet Crime Complaint Center says in 2009, 336,655 complaints were received and that year's dollar loss was $559,700,000. That's over 559 million dollars. That's a lot and the amount more than doubled from 2008's loss of $264.6 million.
Identity theft protection has never been more important than it is in today's electronic, ultra-connected world. Whether you choose to DIY and place your free fraud alerts or become a member of LifeLock, do it now before you have a problem.
