Scam Alert for Facebook users here:

Marie5656 · Aug 27, 2009

I know some here use FB, so I want to mention a potential scam that just happened to me. Now doesn't this sound like something you would run to Snopes about? They always start that way.

Anywho...I was just logged in to FB, anout 20 mins ago. Suddenly got a chat box from my cousin..who is on my friend list. She said she was in a "big mess". Said they were in London England (they live about 35 miles from me in RL) and were just mugged at gunpoint. Mugger got her cell, money ad credit card. Wanted me to wire her money..ASAP, husband having "pains" and they needed to get to airport.

Bells went off right away, as we were just at their house less than 2 weeks ago..no mention of a London trip. Do not know about you, but if I were about to go to London, it would come up in conversation at some point.

I asked for some more personal identifying info. Silence. I asked if police were involved. Silence. I asked about embassy...they "said" it would take 3 weeks to help.

Obviously her FB account had been hacked or compromised somehow. Because when I refused to help, there was no further conversation.

I just changed all my FB settings to private...only my friends can see my info.

I dod contact my cousin's daugter, as I did not want to use her email or FB PM as I did not know how much she had been compromised

Seems a Captain Obvious kind of warning, but just wanted to give a heads up.

Spoof · Aug 27, 2009

Thanks for the warning. Most of the time they get cracked due to insufficient passwords (or using the same password for everything). Now that people use cellphones, password scraping is easier than ever.

If at all possible, use stuff like this;

IhaveApetChinNamedChilli

Even better;

1Hav3aP3tCh1nNam3dChi11i

If you have a hard time remembering your passwords you can write down a set of rules - eg, All i's = 1. All word beginnings are capitol. All passwords are similar = ThisIsMy****Account.

Simple things like that can keep even the most robust cracker out.

)

Jadebf700 · Aug 27, 2009

This is why government/military passwords are so complex. Two lower case letters, two uppercase letters, two numbers and two symbols. I typically follow this now for everything I have. It is also a good idea to change your passwords every so often so it is harder to get hacked. I change my facebook password every three months or so.

FiaSpice · Aug 27, 2009

I remember a story about a guy that got his count hacked and that his status said "I'm stuck in london and need money". Some of his friend where scamed and gave money to the hacker thinking their friend was in danger.

If a friend yould really need my help he/she would call me or write on my e-mail (that is not posted on FB).

edit: here's the article I was talking about: http://www.news.com.au/technology/story/0,28348,24943531-5014239,00.html