Thursday, August 05, 2010

Identity thieves lurking in Facebook?

I'm not sure what to make of the "Featured" deal I just saw over on Facebook, but It did not feel right to me. Here... let me show you what it looks like (name blurred out)...


Now, I have seen this Friend Finder thing for a while. I first saw it showing pictures of friends that it said had used it to find people that they knew. A friend asked their friends who all had tried the thing. Only one person had said they had tried it, even though all of them had shown up on it under the claim that they had.

I got a bad feeling when I saw the above though, because of the request for me to enter my e-mail *AND* the password for that e-mail.

Wait... what? No. I am not giving ANYONE the password for my e-mail!

Stop for a moment and think about this. This is an application that claims it will locate your friends for you, but what is it asking you for? Potential access to your LIFE. Most people have their passwords stored in their email. An identity thief can hack into your e-mail account and have your bank records, utility bill information, online shopping account user names and passwords... they can steal your entire life. And lock you out of your own e-mail so that you can't get things back.

Never give out your e-mail password for any reason. No legitimate company will ever ask for your password that way. I love Facebook, I really do, but they need to take a look at the stuff that is showing up for people to use. They are no longer the domain of the computer savy college crowds, they are how grandmothers keep in touch with the grandkids. They are how proud parents show their great aunts and grandparents new baby pictures and how retired seniors share pictures and stories of their youth.

DO NOT make it any easier for identity thieves to target the elderly. Even if this is a okay application that works as it says and does not have any shady backside to it, it is BAD. It makes it seem like no big deal to share your email and password. It *IS* a big deal. You can loose a lot, including your good credit, retirement, identity, and home. NEVER give anyone any of your passwords for any reason.

STOP Identity Theft.
STOP scams that target seniors.

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