If you use Facebook, Twitter or one of many other social media platforms you might be a new victim of identity theft threat known as "farcing."
Cyber criminals use farcing as a way to access the personal information of users of social media in order to steal their identity. Farcing is one of many threats out there, and " Phishing ", " SMiShing " - a scam that uses phone text messages to attract customers who unknowingly download a virus or malware on their mobile device and " Vishing ." - a telephone scam in which thieves coax users to submit their personal information
Farcing - new online scam to steal users' identities social media
So what farcing? In short, an attacker will create a social media false statement in order to make you accept a friend request. Once you are friends, all information will be available to the wrong account holder. Once they have this information, find out where you live, where you work, your birthday and all sorts of other related information is just a mouse click. From there it is relatively simple to begin to guess passwords for your online accounts, based on the name of a pet that you have tagged in a photo, a favorite place that you mentioned, or last names. The attacker can then use your email account to send spam, submit false advertisements for sunglasses over your social media accounts in your name, or perhaps more serious, sign your purchases and online bank accounts, or even steal your identity!
farcing a recent study was published by Arun Vishwanath an associate professor at the University of Buffalo , who said "these scams are on the rise and continue to increase with the popularity of social media, the exponential increase in the number of victims worldwide farcing ".
Vishwanath performed an experiment of his own by creating fake profiles 4 different Facebook each different to the other. Of the 150 users of Facebook he sent friend requests to one in five agreed, while 13% provided Vishwanath with more information about themselves.
Remember, the cyber criminal is farcing calculation, more devious and more intelligent than your average scammer as they target users who claim to be either a friend or a friend of a friend, or stating that you have one or more friends in common. We are more likely to accept a friend request from someone we have mutual friends in common with, and that is exactly what cybercriminals are counting on, literally.
So the next time you receive a friend request Facebook, ask yourself if you really know them? Even if you have friends in common, they are authentic? How do you know that? Remember that cyber criminals are cunning folk, they have set up profiles to look authentic, using false images of a person looking 'normal' in order not to arouse suspicion. Once you accept their friend request - that "friend" could start mining your personal information in order to steal your identity. And once they have your friendship, they can also see your friends list (if you have this open setting), and they can also see the comments of your friends on your wall and send a friend request .
cyber criminals are honing in on our weaknesses of social media, targeting our Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn and other social media accounts and if you let your Facebook privacy settings open to the public - then they can learn even more!
Do not be a victim of farcing - follow these tips to protect your identity on social media
With billions of us actively and frequently use social media, we are incredibly easy for cyber criminals to zero on us and steal our identity. Fortunately, there are ways we can reduce our presence in online social media, which makes it harder for cyber criminals to steal our identity.
- The more personal information you share, the more chance you might be a victim of farcing - do not make it easy for cyber criminals! Only share your personal information on social media with people you know - see Facebook privacy watcher who will help you know exactly who can see your posts
- There are many of us who have hundreds or even thousands of Facebook friends - accept anyone who sends us a friend request. If you do not know personally, do not accept their friend request
- Keep your personal information. Limit the amount of personal information like your date of birth and email address
- Use another password for each of your online accounts - which also includes your online bank account
I think most of us were trigger 'friend request' happy and accepted the people we really do not know - it's time to do a purge of social media and rid your account all the "unknown"?
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