Dec 27 2006
More Trouble For MySpace - Identity Theft
MySpace has had its share of trouble in 2006, but now a fresh round of identity theft is again raging through MySpace:
MySpace bills itself as a “place for friends.” Increasingly, it is also a place for unfriendly attacks from digital miscreants on the prowl, luring users to sexually explicit Web sites, clogging mailboxes with spam messages and playing on the trust users have when speaking to “friends” to obtain passwords that could lead to identity theft.
Identity theft is the Darwinism of the 21st century. Someone asks you for your information and we provide it. Why does it seem so easy on MySpace?
A key reason behind the popularity is its ease. Simply by adding a few lines of computer code, users can create elaborate profiles and personalize them with photos, music and video. A host of communication tools makes it easy to send messages to one person or a whole list of friends, who number into the thousands for some of the more popular MySpace users.
Those same tools can be used by vandals to make it look like an innocent user has sent spam to the same long list of “friends.”
Programmers are writing scripts that take advantage of specific features on MySpace, including “friend request,” where one user asks to be added to another user’s list of buddies.
I’m wondering again if having a MySpace account is really worth the potential trouble. It’s probably the same story we’ve heard time and time again; criminal prey on the vulnerable or uneducated. Please educate your kids and make them less vulnerable.
MySpace needs to get their act together pretty quickly according to BUZZscreen:
Other popular social networking sites such as Facebook do not have issues like MySpace does. If MySpace doesn’t fix the existing problems in short order, it’s popularity peak may be reached.
And we all know what happens after anything peaks.
It’s all downhill from there.
I couldn’t agree more.
May 19th, 2008 at 7:53 am
Identity Theft - How To Protect Your Myspace Profile…
Myspace.com, probably the most well known social networking site, and most popular among children and teens, has attracted scam artists, hackers, and identity thieves. From malicious worms that hijack your computer and expose your personal files, to …