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Watch Out For MySpace Scammers
SecurityProNews
Staff Writer
2006-05-22
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Users of MySpace.com, who are usually warned of sexual predation, are being warned of a new threat: phishing scams and spoofs aimed at getting personal information from users. As membership increases to upwards of 75 million members, it may be an increasingly attractive target.
Similar to eBay spoofs or banking scams, users can be redirected from their MySpace page to copycat site where they are asked to sign in. Once signed in to fake site, the visitor's computer can be infected with software that tracks keystrokes when banks or shopping sites are visited. Crooks are looking for credit card numbers, PIN numbers and passwords.
Other scams involve MySpace profiles that are completely fake and lead to links that can infect your computer, according to Hiep Dang, director of threat research for Aluria Software, a division of EarthLink and a member of the Digital Knights fraud prevention group.
The National Crime Prevention Council reports that teens, who are known to flock to MySpace pages, face the highest victimization rate of any age group in the U.S. and that identity theft is one of the fastest growing crimes in America.
A survey released by the Justice Department's Bureau of Justice Statistics in April said that 3.6 million households, or about 3 percent of all households in the United States, had been the victim of at least one type of identity theft during a six month period in 2004.
About the Author:
SecurityProNews is a daily online and email publication focusing on internet security issues.
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