Networking the West with Liz Ryan

Scary Social Networks?

By Liz Ryan, 12-19-06

In this article in Forbes, readers are warned of the ten most dangerous online activities, and making the list is - surprise! - participating in social networking sites like Linkedin. While most of the items on the list (don't click on attachments from people you don't know, e.g.) are pretty obvious to experienced computer users, this social-networking ban isn't one you might expect to make the top ten.

The article says that social engineers can use a site like LinkedIn to grab your personal data and hurt you. I'm not feeling it. Have there been any verified cases of identity theft via social-networking site? I haven't seen a news story about anything like that. It seems kinda paranoid to me. Aren't you at greater risk having a known associate steal your personal data that somebody who finds your LinkedIn profile?

I got identity-thieved at work, in 2000. A woman who was an admin assistant in our office went into my wallet and stole three credit cards, and used them like crazy. When I got the cards replaced - because I didn't know who had stolen them, and never suspected any of my co-workers - she went into my purse again and wrote down the credit card numbers, and used them to shop online and over the phone. I only figured out that this Che had stolen my identity when she was arrested for forging company payroll checks and trying to cash them.

She got a 12-month suspended sentence. She's probably out there right now stealing someone else's identity.

Here is the scary part: there was a little boy, her son, that she brought to work sometimes. Later I heard that the little boy was a grifter-scam kid, not her kid, some kid that she had access to and used to create sympathy for herself as a single mom. Spooky. Poor little fellow.

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