“Social-networking sites can be fun and have some obvious benefits like re-connecting with old friends, but you have to exercise caution,” Better Business Bureau president Lynda Pasa-creta said yesterday.


Pasacreta said scammers often take advantage of the fact that most people think they can trust the folks they meet on social-networking sites when, in fact, they could be out to steal personal information such as bank or credit-card numbers.

The BBB saw three main online schemes:
1- Friends in Distress
2- Phishing Friends
3- Viral Wall Post.

Friends in Distress
The Friends in Distress scam has made the move from phone and e-mail to Facebook. Facebook users often get a message from a friend saying they are in a dire situation and need money wired to them. In reality, the friend is a scammer.

Phishing Friends
“Any time you see someone say, ‘Wire me money,’ that should send a red flag up,” said Pasacreta. “You have to take the emotion out of it and step back.” The scheme called Phishing Friends involves a virus called Koobface and people getting a message from a supposed friend saying: “You look awesome in this video” or “You look funny in this video” and asks them to click on a link to an outside website.

The website claims that people must have an updated version of Flash to view the photo or video, but it also introduces a virus designed to monitor Internet activity and steal personal information. Some victims have had such a hard time removing the virus they’ve actually scrapped their computer.

Viral Wall Post
“That Koobface is nasty,” said Pasa-creta. “Be careful which links you click on.” In the Viral Wall Post, Facebook users are contacted by a so-called friend with a message of warning like, “Do you realize your photo is all over [a website]?” But clicking on a link to the website allows hackers to gain access to the user’s personal account and send the same scam to the user’s friends.

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