Facebook (2 Viewers)

[muffin]

thats true..the page would be over run with talk of hot boys and haircuts!!

 

[theweeyin]

im using my admin powers to keep you apart - you two are trouble

Are you really???

 

[flashback]

thats true..the page would be over run with talk of hot boys and haircuts!!

You dont have to look at my profile if you dont want to girls.

 

[theweeyin]

thats true..the page would be over run with talk of hot boys and haircuts!!

Iz u friends with your sister?

Can you see my posts on the wall???

 

[muffin]

yeah im friends with my sister..and i can see your posts but it just gives me the option to delete and not to message you...how very very odd..

 

[Squiggle]

yeah im friends with my sister..and i can see your posts but it just gives me the option to delete and not to message you...how very very odd..

Are you looking at the Thumped message board instead of the "see all members" section?

 

[muffin]

nope she doesnt even show up in the list of members...very very strange..

 

[Jill Hives]

A 'cuddle' friend request, ffs. Perhaps I will just stick to playing scrabble against the robot.

 

[Raudi Raus Schinkel]

Facebook users risk identity theft
Wednesday, 24 October 2007 08:47

Facebook users are being warned that they are putting themselves at serious risk of identity theft.

Posting just a handful of personal details on the website can give fraudsters all the information they need.

Armed with information found on your Facebook page, they can open bank accounts and credit cards in your name.
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The BBC consumer show Watchdog conducted an experiment by setting up a fictional identity on Facebook called 'Amba Friend', accompanied by a cartoon picture of an attractive girl in her 20s.

The team then contacted 100 people at random inviting them to be her friend.

Despite knowing nothing about the person, 35 of those contacted replied immediately - giving 'Amba' and the Watchdog team access to any personal details they shared on the site.

Facebook and other social networking sites like MySpace and Bebo, are expected to have 230m members worldwide by the end of the year, according to Watchdog.

It is possible to protect your privacy by adjusting your settings, but many users do not do this.

 

[jane]

Crikey. No surprise, though.

I just went to check how my profile is secured and took the network off it. I hope that worked. Now only yiz lovely friends can see that I've eaten too many peanut butter cups. I actually thought I'd already done this, but turned out I'm an idiot.

 

[Denny Oubidoux]

im tired of facebook again now

 

[Bladez]

Sounds like scare-mongering to me. I'd really like to see some statistics on the rate of identity theft (number of Facebook users who have had their identity stolen versus the total number of Facebook users). I'd guess you're talking about an almost negligible risk.

 

[jane]

Sounds like scare-mongering to me. I'd really like to see some statistics on the rate of identity theft (number of Facebook users who have had their identity stolen versus the total number of Facebook users). I'd guess you're talking about an almost negligible risk.

Oh, yeah, I know it's probably no more risk than having your name in the phone book, but I'm just more keen to hide from people I don't want to know things about me. I don't think anyone would want to steal my identity. Most of us who live any aspect of our lives on the internet or do anything that involves information in the public domain, it's easy to get info if someone wants it.

 

[Bladez]

And how exactly can someone open a bank account using your name, e-mail address and your friends list?

 

[Bladez]

Oh, yeah, I know it's probably no more risk than having your name in the phone book, but I'm just more keen to hide from people I don't want to know things about me. I don't think anyone would want to steal my identity. Most of us who live any aspect of our lives on the internet or do anything that involves information in the public domain, it's easy to get info if someone wants it.

Yeah. I agree completely with this. I find the idea that anyone can find out such personal details about me invasive. Thats why I deleted my Facebook account. Its more about privacy than any fear of 'identity theft'.

 

[billygannon]

Here's something...
Just say you set up an account under the name of someone well known and famous (like Bruce Springsteen or Joe Jackson).
Then people ask you to be their friend because they want to be associated with that person.
Then even if that person has set their privacy settings so that only friends could access their information, you could see quite a lot about them.
I mean you could work out what school they went to; what job they do; what their e-mail address is; and what they look like.

Crikey.
I better delete mine. I don't know most of the people who are my so-called "friends" on Facebook.
Might go back to Friendster.

 

[billygannon]

Here's something...
Just say you set up an account under the name of someone well known and famous (like Bruce Springsteen or Joe Jackson).
Then people ask you to be their friend because they want to be associated with that person.
Then even if that person has set their privacy settings so that only friends could access their information, you could see quite a lot about them.
I mean you could work out what school they went to; what job they do; what their e-mail address is; and what they look like.

Crikey.
I better delete mine. I don't know most of the people who are my so-called "friends" on Facebook.
Might go back to Friendster.

What's even worse, if you set up as someone not famous. Like if I set up an account under the name Pete Brady and pretended to be him.
Fuck.
Descartes would have a field day online.

 

[Bladez]

What I find worse is giving these social networking sites my password for my e-mail account so that it can look through my list of contacts and find my friends. It would be so easy to spoof a social networking site and get a list of people's e-mail addresses and passwords and get into their accounts. I think this is a bigger threat than any identity theft.

 

[Pantone247]

I don't think anyone would want to steal my identity.

what about an identity swap?

you give me all your passwords to all your various e-mails and facebooks, I give you mine, we have twenty fours before the passwords get changed too see who can make the biggest and longest lasting impact on the others life

 

[Pantone247]

hang on, I think I just invented Channel 4's newest TV show....