Posts tagged as:

fake profiles

Feds Friending Suspects On Social Networking Sites

March 16, 2010

Do you think, having an FBI agent as a friend on Facebook is cool? Maybe, but all the criminals boasting about their exploits will be in for a shock.

Us federal law enforcement agents are said to be going undercover with false online profiles in the social-networking sites – including Facebook, Linkedln, MySpace and Twitter – to search for evidence and witnesses in criminal cases, and in some instances, track suspects, and communicate with suspects and gather private information and communication map.

An internal Justice Department document obtained by the civil liberties group, Electronic Frontier Foundation, in a Freedom of Information Act lawsuit, describes the value of social networking sites to the government investigators.

According to the Associate Press, the document says Facebook is “often cooperative with emergency requests” from federal investigators while Twitter’s layers demand a warrant or subpoena before it will turn over customer information.

The document makes clear that U.S. agents are already logging on surreptitiously to exchange messages with suspects, identify a target’s friends or relatives and browse private information such as postings, personal photographs and video clips.

Among other purposes: Investigators can check suspects’ alibis by comparing stories told to police with tweets sent at the same time about their whereabouts. Online photos from a suspicious spending spree — people posing with jewelry, guns or fancy cars — can link suspects or their friends to robberies or burglaries, according to the source.

[Source: The Associate Press]

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Facebook Users Dupe By Rubber Duck's Friend Request

December 7, 2009

Despite repeated warnings and advices to stay alert keep personal data in private on social-networking sites, Facebook users are still very much laid backed when it comes to security.

IT security vendor, Sophos, created two falsely named accounts – using anagrams of the words “false identity” and “stolen identity”, for its research.

One of them, Daisy Feletin (21, single), was represented by a picture of a rubber duck toy and the other, Dinette Stonily (56, married), with two cats lying on a rug. Each of them sent out friend request to 100 randomly-selected contacts in their age group. After two weeks, 46% accepted Daisy Feletin while 41% accepted Dinette Stonily plus 8 users befriended Dinette on thier own.

Once connected, the fake profiles were able to access a significant amount of personal information from their new friends: 89% birthdays, 100% emails, 46% of their friends and family data.

“Ten years ago, getting access to this sort of detail would probably have taken a con-artist or an identify thief several weeks, and have required the on-the-spot services of a private investigator. Sadly, these days, many social networkers are handing over their life story on a plate,” according to Sophos on its blog.

Take 30 minutes and keep your information safe, don’t feel burdened or stress to check out the Facebook Privacy Settings, or at least keep the must have privacy settings in place to keep yourself safe.

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