Cyber criminals on the scam
ONLINE thieves are turning to social networking sites in a new form of identity fraud.
Internet expert Dr Mark Gregory from RMIT University said thousands of Victorians could be at risk as cyber criminals impersonate genuine Facebook and My Space users to carry out money scams.
``The fraudsters use viruses to collect account details for social networking sites,'' Dr Gregory, program leader for Network Engineering at RMIT's School of Electrical and Computer Engineering. said.
``They then impersonate people and contact friends asking for money. People believe they are being contacted by someone they actually know. It works in a different way from email scams, because the level of trust is already there.''
Fraudsters have also been known to use the identities to send photographs or emails as attachments with imbedded viruses which help them get valuable personal information such as bank details from the infected computer.
Dr Gregory said thousands of incidents had been reported worldwide, and he advised users to be vigilant.
``Make sure virus software is right up to date, and if you receive any requests for money, don't assume it is a friend, check with them first,'' he said.
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