'Ello Guvna! (I got it out of my system).
Put your rods in the trunk you won’t need them to learn about this kind of Phishing. Phishing means “To request confidential information over the Internet under false pretenses in order to fraudulently obtain credit card numbers, passwords, or other personal data” and it is one of the biggest dangers of social networks like Facebook. It can leave you missing a big chunk of money.
The case of one woman from St. Louis, and what is one of the most infamous schemes in the world of Facebook, took place when she got a message from a trusted friend that she and her husband were stuck in London after being robbed and had no way to get home. They asked her to wire them money and she got scammed out of $4,000. This phishing scam has been named 'The London Scam.'
What happened in the situation with the woman from St. Louis is usually the basic scenario. Hackers hack into one of your friends' Facebook pages, next, they look at your information, friends, relatives, and whatnot. They use this information to seem believable that they are actually one of your friends. They then message you that they are being detained or that they just got robbed and are stuck in London and need money. Being the loving, warm-hearted friend that you are you sympathize with them and immediately go to Western Union and send them a bunch of money. GOTCHYA! Now the hackers, posed as your friend can go buy a fancy new iPod Touch (Gee, thanks loving warm-hearted sucker).
Now, if you are like me you are saying, "Gee golly, blogger, but I'm not stupid. I would never fall for that. I know all about the world wide web." Think again. Beny Rubinstein is a little bit of a computer security whiz too. He has 20 years of IT experience and he has a degree in computer engineering. Do you have that? Well, to put it bluntly, he fell for it. His computer tech buddy sent him a disturbing message about getting robbed and being stuck in the good old U.K. What do you know, Beny sent that money and as soon as he knew it he was out $1100.
This goes to show you that maybe you aren't quite the smarty pants you think you are. Anyone can get caught in a Phishing or other kind of scam on Facebook or any social medium. Here you can find some tips (on Facebook what do you know?) about how to not fall for phishing scams on Facebook. Basically, it tells you to contact an individual who is asking for money outside of the social network to verify that it's a real person and don't click on suspicious links. I am going to give you one piece of advice- KNOW WHEN YOU'RE FRIENDS ARE IN LONDON! Sheesh, that's a big trip to not know your friend is on, and you call yourself a friend.
What do you think? Have you heard of this scam? Do you know anyone who has been phished? Have you ever gotten a suspicious link? I have.
The case of one woman from St. Louis, and what is one of the most infamous schemes in the world of Facebook, took place when she got a message from a trusted friend that she and her husband were stuck in London after being robbed and had no way to get home. They asked her to wire them money and she got scammed out of $4,000. This phishing scam has been named 'The London Scam.'
What happened in the situation with the woman from St. Louis is usually the basic scenario. Hackers hack into one of your friends' Facebook pages, next, they look at your information, friends, relatives, and whatnot. They use this information to seem believable that they are actually one of your friends. They then message you that they are being detained or that they just got robbed and are stuck in London and need money. Being the loving, warm-hearted friend that you are you sympathize with them and immediately go to Western Union and send them a bunch of money. GOTCHYA! Now the hackers, posed as your friend can go buy a fancy new iPod Touch (Gee, thanks loving warm-hearted sucker).
Now, if you are like me you are saying, "Gee golly, blogger, but I'm not stupid. I would never fall for that. I know all about the world wide web." Think again. Beny Rubinstein is a little bit of a computer security whiz too. He has 20 years of IT experience and he has a degree in computer engineering. Do you have that? Well, to put it bluntly, he fell for it. His computer tech buddy sent him a disturbing message about getting robbed and being stuck in the good old U.K. What do you know, Beny sent that money and as soon as he knew it he was out $1100.
This goes to show you that maybe you aren't quite the smarty pants you think you are. Anyone can get caught in a Phishing or other kind of scam on Facebook or any social medium. Here you can find some tips (on Facebook what do you know?) about how to not fall for phishing scams on Facebook. Basically, it tells you to contact an individual who is asking for money outside of the social network to verify that it's a real person and don't click on suspicious links. I am going to give you one piece of advice- KNOW WHEN YOU'RE FRIENDS ARE IN LONDON! Sheesh, that's a big trip to not know your friend is on, and you call yourself a friend.
What do you think? Have you heard of this scam? Do you know anyone who has been phished? Have you ever gotten a suspicious link? I have.
I really enjoyed reading your post, because as I’ve said previously, I am not on Facebook or MySpace, so anything to do with these sites is new to me. Things like phishing scams are really good reasons for me to keep myself off of sites like Facebook and MySpace! I cannot say with all certainty that I wouldn’t be stupid enough to fall for one of those scams.
ReplyDeleteSomething I am not clear on though is how the transactions can go through without a hitch. Isn’t there some kind of checks and balances system in place where an ID has to be provided in order to proceed with getting the money transferred? If there isn’t, there really should be to protect people from things like this!
Lately, I have gotten lots of e-mails from people claiming to be leaders of small countries who have great fortunes that they want to give to me. These are easy enough to ignore, but the example of Beny Rubinstein opened my eyes. Getting an e-mail from a familiar person asking for help would not be as easy to dismiss. I guess this goes to show just how careful a person needs to be when online.
ReplyDelete