MySpace Scams

They’ve become some of the most looked at websites on the Internet.

These are social networking sites like myspace and facebook, and they’ve become very popular with scam artists.

They could be logging onto your page next.

“I felt livid,” cyber victim Atlantis Bohlen said. “I was angry. I felt like someone came into my space.”

That’s how Bohlen felt when someone hijacked her myspace page.

They somehow grabbed her password and sent mass mailings to her Internet friends.

“You would think the other person would be vulnerable because they care about you and they might be willing to help you,” Bohlen said.

Atlantis is talking about the latest scam on the net, people stealing your identity from myspace or facebook and then hitting up the contacts for money.

“Really, your user name and password, and simply those two pieces of information just allows the cyber criminal access to your circle of friends, your direct connections and from there the sky’s the limit,” Jeff Debrosse with E-Set said.

Debrosse, with the network security company E-Set says the goal of scam artists is to push your emotional buttons.

“The online criminals are really another title you can actually give them is armchair psychologists,” Debrosse said.

Whether it’s over the phone or online, they will find a way to get you to set aside your better judgment.

The problem is, you don’t have any idea who’s behind these emails.

You think it’s a friend?

It could be a bad guy a half a world away.

“So, they spend a significant amount of time trying to come up with new ways to hit that emotional trigger to get you to let go of your money,” Debrosse said.

If scammers are using your name and password to pull off the trick, it’s something you don’t forget.

“It scared me a little bit, kind of creeped me out to think what could happen,” Bohlen said.

So, how do you avoid being a victim?

Make sure to change your passwords, make it difficult for bad guys to break into your site, and if you get an email from a friend asking for money, check it out.

Don’t let emotion cloud your better judgment.

Jesse Clay Scott, 33, of Seguin, Texas, is just the latest of about 30 convicted sex offenders arrested to date by the Texas Attorney General’s Fugitive and Cyber Crimes units for allegedly accessing MySpace in violation of parole conditions. Four others were arrested for allegedly using the social-networking site to meet and sexually proposition undercover agents posing as minors under the age of 15, the Texas Attorney General’s office said in a statement and videotaped news conference.

Scott, arrested last week, allegedly used both his home computer and cell phone to access his MySpace account. He was paroled in 2008 after serving five and a half years in prison for sexually assaulting a 15-year-old girl, the statement said.

A MySpace representative said the News Corp.-owned social network is doing everything it can to keep sex offenders off the site.

“The safety and security of our users is a top priority for MySpace. We have removed and preserved the MySpace profile of this offender,” Hemanshu Nigam, MySpace chief security officer, said in a statement. “We employ a best of breed solution that we continue to improve on an ongoing basis in an ever changing environment. We hope that the remaining 29 states, including Texas, quickly pass e-mail registration legislation so that offenders can be punished for providing false information online.”

The arrest announcement comes one day after MySpace handed over the names of 90,000 registered sex offenders found on its site to the Connecticut Attorney General’s office, which had subpoenaed the social-networking site last month for the data.

Sentinel, the technology provider MySpace uses to find sex offenders on its site, accused Facebook this week of having 9,000 registered sex offenders on its site in what looks on the surface to be a ploy to drum up business.

The use of social networks by sex offenders has become a hot topic. Attorneys general claim the sites are not kid-safe if so many registered sex offenders are on there, while a recent report finds that those concerns may be overblown.

Consumer Affairs Minister Tony Robinson yesterday warned people using networking websites they could expose themselves to scams.

“As more and more Victorians join social networking services, they need to be aware that there is an increasing number of con artists taking advantage of the popularity of these services to steal information and money,” Mr Robinson said.

“Frauds can use personal details listed on these sites to personalize their scam attempts.”

Some scammers use personalized emails persuading victims to give out their bank details, making their claims more believable by allowing their victim to view their MySpace, Facebook or Bebo page.

Frauds also use social networking sites to encourage users to unwittingly download spy ware software, which can be used to record online banking passwords.

Mr Robinson said users of social networking sites could protect themselves by only accepting “friend requests” from people they knew and trusted.

Tereca Ford saved herself a lot of heartache, hassle and thousands of dollars by not falling for an Internet scam.

“I listened to my gut,” the aspiring 35-year-old model said in an interview. “The whole thing just didn’t feel right and I called police.

“They told me to cut off all contact with those people and I did.”

Now, a little wiser, the Brantford woman wants to share her close encounter with online scams so that others don’t become victims.

“Everything seemed to be on the up and up,” Ford said Tuesday. “But when I got the (modelling) contract, I and a couple of other people read it over and it got us to thinking.

“It said that once I was on the shoot, the photographer was in control and that I would have to do what the photographer said.”

That set off alarm bells because it raised the possibility of her being forced to pose nude. In all previous online correspondence, Ford was told she would be modelling clothing, such as jeans and jackets.

There were other issues that caused her concern. In one e-mail correspondence, Ford wanted to know the identity of the client, the name of the catalog the shoot was for, as well as the shoot’s time and place.

“But when I asked about when and where the shoot would take place, I never got answers.”

alarm bells

The alarm bells became even louder when she received $3,200 worth of money orders from those associated with the modelling job. “It was supposed to be a $9,000 shoot and I was supposed to get paid $2,000 for it,” she said. “I’d get $1,000 up front and the other $1,000 after it was over.

“When they sent me $3,200 - a lot more than I had expected - I began to wonder why.”

When she enquired about it with her online contact, she was told to cash the money orders, take her cut and send the balance to the studio manager.

The envelope the money orders arrived in also bothered her because the lettering appeared to be Russian or Eastern European.

Suspicious, Ford didn’t cash the money orders. Instead, she called police.

The money orders were fake.

If she had been able to cash them, she may have been responsible for the entire $3,200. Once the fraud was uncovered, she would have had to pay back all the money, including the cash she had forwarded to the studio, which probably couldn’t be traced. She could also face criminal charges.

Ford’s close encounter with the modelling scam began when she wanted to upgrade her MySpace account, which features her picture. She received a message asking her if she was interested in modelling. When she said she was, Ford was asked to provide her name, address, phone number and another photo.

She was also told someone would contact her if she was accepted. Details about payment and what the modelling shoot entailed were also discussed over a series of e-mails.

scams becoming more common

Online scams such as the one Ford became embroiled in are becoming quite common, police say.

The scams usually involve a pretense of a legitimate business transaction involve the purchase and sale of merchandise or a service. Police often see this type of scam used to obtain money from people who are selling cars in want ads or for paying for dance lessons.

One of the hallmarks of the scam that almost ensnared Ford is the targeted victim is always given access to more money than they expected and more than what the service or product is worth. They are then asked to take the money they are owed and send the balance elsewhere, usually through a money forwarding service.

The victim, almost inevitably, has a choice between grabbing some easy cash in what appears to be a good deal or listening to their instincts and backing away.

Police always say that if a deal sounds too good to be true, it probably is - and likely a scam.

Ford, meanwhile, still wants to pursue a modelling career but she’s become even more careful about who she deals with and what she does online.

“This has made me a lot more wary that’s for sure.”

Police arrested a man they say was meeting young girls on MySpace and scamming them.

Because his picture was on TV, Police say they got a tip that led them to Jeff Ipson.

His Scam: he got women to cash bad checks for him, then he took off with their money.

Ipson was arrested Wednesday morning and will face five different charges of theft by deception.

The Mega-D botnet has overtaken Storm Worm as the world’s biggest purveyor of spam, according to Marshal. This news highlights the lax security on some social applications and networking sites - something you can help us defeat!

The Mega-D botnet has surpassed the infamous Storm Worm as the world’s largest source of spam, according to IT security company Marshal. Mega-D, which promotes male sexual enhancement pills such as Herbal King and VPXL, uses emails to trick people into installing the spam product. It now accounts for 32 per cent of all spam, Secure Computing reports.

It also uses news headlines to get people to open the spam, even using the recent death of Australian actor Heath Ledger as a hook. This tactic is similar to that used by the Storm Worm. “[Mega-D] probably started about four months ago and it’s been steadily increasing since then,” said Marshal’s Bradley Anstis.

“It is possible that the individuals behind the Storm botnet are responsible for one or more of these other botnets.” He added that Microsoft had done a good job with its malicious software removal tool that has helped to tackle the Storm Worm. Given the widespread nature of Microsoft’s software and their increasing acquisitions on the internet, it’s nice to see they’ve upped their game and their anti-malware is effective.

Meanwhile, it emerged last month that spam purveyor Sanford Wallace had made $555,000 through a scam on MySpace that pushed users through to porn and gambling sites controlled by Wallace.

While we realise Microsoft aren’t everyone’s favourite firm, compared to the likes of Facebook, Bebo and MySpace, at least they take their security seriously. For the benefit of all the online community, it’s totally worth fighting for better security on third party social applications and social networking sites or going white hat to help application developers to fix loopholes.

If you want to continue to enjoy the internet safe in the knowledge that your privacy isn’t being violated then we really need to encourage companies like Microsoft in this regard and rally round with initiatives like Stopbadware.org.

So how do we fight this together?

We’re just asking you to blog, talk, post on forums, write emails, ‘soft spam’ Facebook by getting all of your friends to set the same status – anything to raise awareness of the lack of privacy present on some social networks and to make it secure. In the words of the great Jerry Springer: “Take care of yourself, and each other.”

After wrapping up his work in the Star Wars saga, Darth Vader settled down in Allentown, Pa. At least, that’s what his MySpace page says.

Actually, there are at least a dozen people on the popular networking site claiming to be the famous villain-turned-hero, which tells us two things: There’s a lot of obvious lying going on and there’s not much being done to discourage it.

Both Facebook and MySpace have rules prohibiting participants from pretending to be someone else. But with droves of users — MySpace alone says it has more than 70 million — neither site is in the business of aggressively policing identity.

And they don’t have to. Sites like MySpace can’t be held liable for the actions of users, according to a ruling last year by a federal judge in Texas. The only time people come close to getting in trouble for using a false identity is when they commit a crime — usually it’s sexual predators stalking kids. But it’s the sex crime that brings charges. Using a fake persona is not a crime.

But soon it could be.

This month, federal officials in Los Angeles revealed they are investigating whether fraud was involved when 13-year-old Megan Meier hanged herself in 2006 after being taunted on MySpace by someone using a fake identity.

The account was linked to a neighboring Dardenne Prairie, Mo., family. Local authorities declined to file charges, saying the circumstances — various people had access to the account — made it difficult to assign blame. Creating the fictional Josh Evans, Megan’s tormentor, was not considered a crime.

The L.A. investigation — in the district that includes Santa Monica, the home of MySpace — is drawing attention across the country and the industry.

At the heart of the Megan Meier incident is a larger issue of honesty on the Internet, and why sitting in front of a computer makes it so easy for some people to stretch the truth, sometimes maliciously.

“It’s just so much easier to pretend to be someone else online. People are very eager to try it out,” said David Whittier, a professor at Boston University’s School of Education. “There’s really nothing wrong with that. In a way, it’s a wonderful thing.”

Unless, he said, it goes too far or is done to hurt someone, as in the Megan Meier case.

“There should be an appropriate penalty for what these people did,” Whittier said. “I’m hoping our civilized societies will work together to develop laws and guidelines to make cyberspace more civilized.”

But that’s where it gets sticky, some experts say. How do you regulate the Internet — a medium that promotes the quick flow of ideas of information — without strangling its creativity?

Catherine Dwyer, a professor at Pace University’s Seidenberg School of Computer Science and Information Systems, doesn’t think it can be done.

Like others, she doubts the Internet will ever be able to guarantee the person on the other end of your digital line is who they say they are. Imagine, she said, the difficulties of forcing every online user to prove their identity when signing up for sites like MySpace.

MySpace has launched a free ad funded mobile version of itself.

MySpace Mobile had primarily been a service based on subscriptions available to Helio and AT&T subscribers until now. However, the new version will work on all the networks in US. MySpace users will be able to carry out the normal functions such as sending and receiving messages and friend requests, searching for friends, updating blogs, posting bulletins and commenting on pictures.

In the initial stages, banners and sponsorships will form the base of the ads. In due course, there will be more focus on targeted advertising and location based ads.

The launch can be seen as an initiative by Fox Interactive to expand the reach of MySpace. Social networking sites are increasingly being banned in educational institutes and work places, and this has prompted users to turn to their mobiles for accessing these sites. In addition, the number of users turning to their mobiles for web access and social network users on the move has increased significantly. MySpace too wants to tap in these users with its free ad funded mobile version. This might not have been possible if the services would have been confined to only Helio and AT&T subscribers.