Posted: Sunday, February 10, 2013 6:00 am
Odessa American
I was checking my email, when I saw a new message from a friend. She didn’t contact me often, so I thought it might be something interesting. The RE: line included my name and it looked legitimate, but the body of the email was just a link.
I paused, and instead of clicking on the link, I emailed my friend directly to ask what she had sent me. Sure enough, she hadn’t sent me anything. Some scammer used the information posted on my Facebook account, to create an elaborate, personalized email to lure me into thinking the link was an actual message from my friend.
Better Business Bureau advises everyone to check the privacy settings on your social media accounts. Scammers are using the personal data shared through Facebook, Google+ and LinkedIn to pose as your friends in personalized, fraudulent emails.
How the Scam Works:
You receive an email that appears to be from a friend or family member. The message addresses you by name, but the content is strange. Usually, it’s just a link to a website. If you click on it, you could end up downloading malware on to your computer.
Scammers find your information through your social media accounts and then exploit the fact that you’re more likely to click on a link sent by a friend. Some scammers set up fake accounts and send out friend requests to gain access to your personal information. Others rely on social media users not locking down their privacy settings, so their basic information, such as their name, email address and friends’ names, can be seen by the public.
To protect your personal information shared on social media:
?Review your security settings. Check your privacy setting on all your social media accounts to ensure you aren’t sharing personal information with strangers.
Be cautious of accepting friend requests from unknown people. This could be a scammer’s attempt to gain access to your personal information.
Don’t overshare. Limit what personal information you share on your social media pages and avoid posting any personal information that could potentially be used fraudulently, such as your email address, phone number and address.
Report scam profiles or suspicious activity. Some social sites, such as Facebook, have instructionson how to report fake accounts or accounts that violate the terms of the site.
Consider enabling login notifications. This security feature will send you an alert every time your account is accessed from a new device.
Protect your information when using public Wi-Fi. Before using public Wi-Fi to access your Facebook account, text “otp” to 32665 to receive a temporary password to log in to your account.
Patton is the Regional Director of the Permian Basin Better Business Bureau. Check out the website www.bbb.org or call 563-1880.
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