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Hidden dangers of Facebook - The Times of India

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Hidden dangers of Facebook

Narayanan Krishnaswami, TNN | Jul 29, 2012, 09.30AM IST

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Read More: Symantec | Facebooks Security Page | Facebooks Security Option | Facebook Users | Facebook Security | Facebook Dangers | Facebook Account | Facebook | Drive By Download | Active X

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When Kamesh D (name changed) received a phone call from a friend asking him if he was in trouble, he was mildly surprised. The surprise turned to alarm as he learnt that his friend had received a message on Facebook, saying that he had been robbed of his mobile and money while holidaying in Paris and updating Facebook courtesy of a stranger, and asking for money to be sent to a strange account. Kamesh was lucky. He was able to logon to Facebook, change his password and update his apps , thank s to frauds ters capitaliz ing on the status, asking his friends to ignore any requests popularity of the s ocial netw ork ing s ite. for money. Kamesh had become, for a brief period of time, a victim of the 419 scam - updated for the Facebook age.
Facebook is als o hom e to m any m alicious link s and

Read: 9 random things people do on Facebook In 1995, there were 16 million users of the internet. It took another 10 years for the number of users to hit 900 million. Facebook had a million users, in 2004, its year of incorporation. In 2006, it had 16 million users. As of April this year, the social networking site had hit 901 million users around the world, doing in six years what had taken the entire Internet a decade. Where there are crowds, there are criminals. And it's not surprising that Facebook attracts a whole new breed of scamsters. Their objectives remain the same -- it's either money, personal information or redirection to shady schemes or page hits. In 2009, a woman named Leanne Saylor took a Facebook quiz. Y ou know the type "Which Star Wars character are you most like?" or "Which celebrity are you?" There are thousands of these on Facebook. Saylor took an online IQ test. On completion, she was asked to enter her mobile phone number to receive the results on her phone. She got the results - and she also got subscribed to three mobile text messaging services that ended up with an additional $44 (Rs. 2,434) on her mobile bill. Anyone active on Facebook is bound to have seen posts like this "COOL!! i cant believe its real and official we can now see who's viewing our profile, Check Who's Viewing Y our Profile here" or an image list of a user's friends with the caption "Y our profile visitors in the last 12 hours". The links that accompany these posts invariably lead to one scam or the other. The problem lies with the nature of Facebook applications. When you launch a Facebook application, you first get past a permissions page. For example, the popular "MyCalendar" app requires information to "Y our basic info", which includes your name, your profile picture, your
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requires information to "Y our basic info", which includes your name, your profile picture, your gender, your networks, your user id, your friend list and any other information you made public. Angry Birds Friends, one of the most popular Facebook games, requires all the above information and your email id. It will also make posts on your behalf on your timeline. When a user signs up for an app, all this valuable information is made available to the app developer and the use of this information is entirely dependent on the app developer's benevolence. David Hall, regional consumer product marketing manager for Symantec Asia Pacific says that the most common ways scamsters benefit from Facebook attacks are through redirection to scammy product pages, premium subscription services and more dangerously, the so-called "Drive By Downloads". A Drive By Download happens when a user either dowloads a piece of software - a browser plugin, an ActiveX control or any other piece of executable software without fully understanding what it does - or a piece of software downloads itself on to the user's computer without the user's knowledge or consent. Ultimately, not being taken in depends on being careful. If one of your friends has uncharacteristically watched a video titled "OMG, Look at what this girl wore to the beach", ignore it. If you see a post about a tool that allows you to remove the Facebook timeline, ignore it. Facebook also doesn't allow anyone to track who's seen your profile . And use Facebook's security options. Facebook's security page allows you to enforce secure browsing. Y ou can also choose to be notified by email or text when someone accesses your account from a strange device or machine. Y ou can also use the security page to set up app passwords, meaning you have different passwords for apps and your Facebook account. Finally, you can review the active Sessions settings to see the locations and operating systems from which your account has been accessed.

Hidden dangers of Facebook - The Times of India

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25 Follow ers 1 hr ago

Hidden dangers of Facebook - The Times of India

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FB is full of dangers. Anything that you do or post can be liable for 'criminal' scrutiny. A simple post by your daughter or son "Dad has finally agreed to take all of us on the holiday that he promised 3 years ago! We will be going to Hawai for a week" will indicate that your house is empty for 7 days - ripe Social M e dia for burglary. Any phone number given can be exploited, Stay away from FB

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Navien (trichy) 15 Follow ers 1 hr ago

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the most idiotic thing that I cant abide is loving through facebook!!! I don't know how people choose their partners without knowing even his/her name is true or not...!!! crappy people....

Dinesh Prabhakar (delhi) 38 Follow ers 1 hr ago Silver: 4276

These are not hidden dangers, these are open dangers, it is that people do not take enough precautions to safeguard their interests.

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Woman raped by 3 men, sold t hrice Moral policing: Police nab 8 for attacking rev ellers

Vikas Ravindra (Bangalore, India) 1 hr ago Bronze: 167 Agree (0) Disagree (0) Recommend (0) Offensive

love to ve an intro into more security access. As to say i ve accessed many of the links that r dangerous!

Moral policem en break the law

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Harin Bansal (New Delhi) 46 Follow ers 2 hrs ago Gold: 8232

very nice article.. very informative..

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My principal is don't interact with strangers. People sparing less time for their real and tested friends and unnecessary wandering in search of mirage (cyber friends).

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Yogeesha Hc (Bangalore, India) 3 hrs ago Bronze: 162 Agree (1) Disagree (0) Recommend (0) Offensive

Always make judicious use of facebook. Don't simply log into facebook as you are having some leisure time. Think twice before making any clicks or posting some information.

m adeline m argaret (uk) 14 Follow ers 3 hrs ago Silver: 2075

thieves, one and all..... making fools of innocent users.

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Alan Ecker (California, US) 3 hrs ago

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Hidden dangers of Facebook - The Times of India

Please support Facebook. You can help US company Facebook to earn money by clicking on the ads. God Bless America.
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so that its stock prices remain good and investors profit.

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A Ravan trick to loot .Limit,draw a boundary how much to rely on face book.Verify it by cross check.

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aakash (India) 4 hrs ago

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There is no real "Face" of facebook. So guys please beware...!!!

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akanksha (allahabad) 4 hrs ago

Fb is full of scams...nd u r always in danger no matter how u set up ur privacy option as danger may alredy b on ur frnd list I dont understand why people r so much addicted to it...for chatting u hve google talk nd which is very safe Google is d best

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Rajesh (india) replies to akanksha 2 hrs ago

Zuckerberer is the biggest scamster with his 16 billion dollar IPO

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Nitesh Prakash (Lonavala) 5 hrs ago Bronze: 121

Nice and informative article.Social networking does helps but one must be aware of its cautious uses and mostly parents should take care that children are not misled by usage.Stay Alert,Stay Active

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nky.india01 (agartala) replies to Nitesh Prakash 39 mins ago Bronze: 80 Agree (0) Disagree (0) Recommend (0) Offensive

be aware

Am arendra Kum ar (London, United Kingdom) 5 hrs ago Bronze: 47 Agree (1) Disagree (0) Recommend (0) Offensive

This is very correct- The same story of a friend being robbed in Europe came to me giving the account details of Europe to remit a small amount of around GBP1100.I was surprised that he is Europe & me in Uk- how come he is here without my knowledge. I rang up two of his brothers in India at late in night . They informed that he was very much in India. Then I cud make out the case. Thereafter I remain cautious in handling such messages .We should all be very careful.when we are asked to allow access to our personal information. Amarendra,London

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Hidden dangers of Facebook - The Times of India

bhram ar agarw al (Hyderabad) 2 Follow ers 5 hrs ago Bronze: 203 Agree (5) Disagree (1) Recommend (1) Offensive
1 2

FB is bull-s$%t.. just waste of time.

Adv. Rajas (Pune) 5 hrs ago

I have handled many cases of this sort, from my experience guys be very careful on where you click, read everything, understand and then proceed. There is nothing free in this world.

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Lalit Chaudhary (Jaipur City, Rajasthan,) 8 Follow ers 5 hrs ago Silver: 1054

Be aware of Facebook........

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Kailash Tripura (tripura) 5 hrs ago Bronze: 48 Agree (2) Disagree (0) Recommend (0) Offensive

be careful about your FACEBOOK account

Tejash Chavji (mumbai) 6 hrs ago Silver: 728

CHECK!!!!

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COLRAMBIRLAMBA (PTA) 7 Follow ers 6 hrs ago Silver: 1110

TAKE CARE OF YOUR ASSETS

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venkatesh ram am oorthy (Bangalore) 6 Follow ers 7 hrs ago Silver: 423

so bad

Agree (0) Disagree (0) Recommend (0) Offensive Ram esh (Mumbai) 18 Follow ers 7 hrs ago Silver: 2882 Agree (1) Disagree (1) Recommend (1) Offensive

A good article. Having a Facebook account is like an essential in life for youngsters now. article describes how the gullible are taken for a ride. This It is better to be vigilant than to be sorry later.

arshad khan (Dubai) 6 Follow ers 7 hrs ago Silver: 785

timesofindia.indiatimes.com/tech/social-media/Hidden-dangers-of-Facebook/articleshow/15234951.cms

Better to AVOID Face book surfing as much as possible. It has more drawback than benefit. Its totally waste of time.

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drawback than benefit. Its totally waste of time.

Hidden dangers of Facebook - The Times of India

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Ravinder Nath Watts (california) 7 hrs ago

Be Alert of fb. Its important to be concise and to the point while using face book.

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