Robert Siciliano is a NextAdvisor.com Expert Guest Blogger
Imagine if someone uses your name and image, or the name and logo of a business you own, create a profile on Facebook, Twitter or any other social networking site. Then they begin to post blogs and send links while pretending to be you. They can communicate with your acquaintances, colleagues or clients, or they can just show up when searching for your other name. In any case, their intentions are fraudulent. Establishing an online presence using the identity of someone else creates unlimited possibilities for a crook.
traditional phishing, in which fraudsters send a fake email that appears to come from a trusted entity, is as successful as it used to be. So, identity thieves are taking advantage of social networking sites to build a home base. Once established, they seem as legitimate as any other user. There are few, if any, checks and balances to prevent this.
identity theft social media occurs for a number of reasons :.
- An impersonator may be tempted to steal your customers or potential customers
- He or she might be squatting on your name or brand, hoping to profit by selling it to you or prevent you from using it.
- They could be criminal hackers posting infected links that, if clicked, will infect the PC of the victim or a network with a virus that gives hackers backdoor access to.
- An imitator can intentionally pose as you, and even a blog you like to damage your brand or name. Everything they say in the world that is libelous, or just badly hurt your reputation and may even make you the target of a lawsuit.
- He or she may be using your identity to harass someone you nkow.
- The impersonator may wish to harass you, perhaps to avenge a slight percieved or because you have sold them a defective product or service.
- They may want to use a name or a brand that has a leverage effect, as a celebrity or Fortune 500 company, as a form of social engineering to get a priveledged access.
- If you or your business products or services for sale, identity thieves can pose as you and offer deals with links to spoofed websites, in order to extract credit card numbers.
- They can stand as a government entity for the purposes of data mining and commit a new account fraud.
- An impostor may be obsessed with you or your brand, and you simply want to be associated with you. Posing as you could give attention and satisfaction.
- They could be you or your brand parody, creating a language on the website of the plays that could be funny and obvious, but most likely will not be funny for you.
- They could pose as you elicit contact with other people for a relationship, sexual or otherwise, either in person or virtually. A young man was recently caught posing as a pretty girl in his school. He contacted the guys in his class with a fake Facebook account and asked for nude pictures of them. When he revealed who he was, he used the incriminating photos to extort sex from them.
Social media is just a baby. All this stems from real-world examples in recent years. Unfortunately, this list will continue to grow. Varieties of fraud that may occur through social media is the imagination of the thief. Submit your own conclusions. Listen to what other stumbling over social media identity thieves are doing.
To prevent identity theft social media, record all your officers, company names and brand products on all social media sites, you can find to prevent cybersquatting and Twitter squatting. You can do this manually or using a very profitable service called Knowem.com.
And invest in identity theft protection. All forms of identity theft can be prevented, but identity theft protection services can dramatically reduce your risk.
Robert Siciliano, identity theft speaker, discusses identity theft social media on Fox Boston.
Robert Siciliano is CEO of IDTheftSecurity.com, an expert on identity theft, professional speaker, security analyst, published author and television news correspondent. Siciliano works with Fortune 1000 and start-up companies as a consultant on product launches, branding, messaging, representation, SEO and media. the thoughts and advice of Siciliano on all these issues often appear in both television and print media news, including CNN, MSNBC, CNBC, FOX, Forbes and USA Today. He has 25 years of safety training as a member of the American Society for Industrial Security. He is the author of two books, including The Safety Minute: Living on high alert; How to take control of your personal safety and to prevent fraud . He also established a partnership with Uni-Ball to help raise awareness of the growing threat of identity theft and provide tips on how you can protect yourself.