Facebook users - BEWARE!

[Mandrake Von Sets]

Hi folks,

I wanted to send out a warning to those who are Facebook users.

A friend of mine had their account hacked into recently. I thought I was chatting with them in FB in a normal way....until they let me know why they were contacting me. They "needed" some money after claiming to be mugged while in the UK, and they had hotel/cab fees that needed to be paid off before they can come back home.
After making a couple phone calls, I determined the person I was chatting with may have been a hacker as I was able to contact the person (whose name they were using) on the phone at the same time.

My friend and her husband had not gone to the UK. They were at home in Utah.

Keep your eyes and senses open.

[LordEustace]

thanks Will. Will do.

[renfairephotog]

That happen to someone here locally.  Someone hacked their account and started asking for 1500 to help.

[Tipsy Gypsy]

Going to share that with my friend list- thanks.

[captmarga]

old scam, new venue.  Same goes for anything email....  Sad, people have nothing better to do than mess with other people's lives.

Marga

[Merlin]

I have to say....any friend that I would give money to wouldn't be contacting me via facebook.... they would just call me.

I hate scammers, criminals, hackers.....etc

Beware good people. No good deed goes unpunished.

[ladylissame]

I had the same thing happen over my google chat, talking with a friend who said he needed money. I asked him "who is this?", especially because I was talking to my best friend at the time who saw him the night before. The scammer gave me the name on the account, which was the name of the character my friend plays in his RPG game, not his real name or the nickname we all call him by.
I contacted my friend and told him and sure enough his email was hacked and he couldn't get in.

[Merlin]

Well...if anyone contacts anyone here using the name of Merlin...asking for money. It's a scam.
Don't send it to the address they are asking you to use.





Send it to:

The Real Merlin
PO Box BR549
Beverly Hills, CA 90210


That way I'll be sure to get it.
We'll show them! Who's the joke on now?

[meauho]

Sadly, people add the applications without a second thought, and Facebook doesn't really do any checking on who it is coming from or block the info that they get - they are the #1 way that accounts get hacked.

Just as bad, even if they aren't hacking your account with the application (quizzes count), your privacy settings mean absolutely nothing where apps are concerned - the manager of the application (or quiz) has access to everything you put on your FB - even if you set it's privacy to only you.

The ACLU has a quiz on FB showing what information they get access to when you just take a quiz.

[RumbaRue]

Personally, I'm glad I don't have a Facebook or any other blog account.
The only thing I do is Tweet. 

[meauho]

One of the conventions I work with uses it for staff meetings and updates, so I had to get one.
Other than that, I use it for social networking of my business.