A story on CNN.com – "Facebook, Twitter users beware: Crooks are a mouse click away" – warns users of Facebook, Twitter, and other popular social networking sites that they could be victims of identity theft if they keep providing personal information to identity thieves.
According to CNN, since 2006 nearly 3,200 account hijacking cases – a type of identity theft – have been reported to the Internet Crime Complaint Center (IC3), a partnership between the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI), the National White Collar Crime Center, and the Bureau of Justice Assistance. In 2008, IC3 received more than 72,000 complaints about Internet identity theft and fraud resulting in financial losses of $264.6 million, up from 2007, an average loss of $931 per person, CNN reported.
Social networking sites like Facebook and Twitter are the new frontier in the identity theft battle because of their astounding growth rates. CNN reported that Facebook claimed 300 million users – almost the size of the current U.S. population – while micro-blogging site Twitter grew over 1,300 percent in one year to more than 7 million users.
The FBI and Internet security experts provide Facebook, Twitter, and other social network users with information on how to protect against identity theft scams, including:
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Change passwords frequently;
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Adjust privacy settings;
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Add friends carefully (the average Facebook user has 120 friends);
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Click with care, and;
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Report compromised accounts.
Protecting personal information should be a top priority to users of social networking sites like Facebook and Twitter if they want to avoid identity theft. In addition to FBI suggestions, "personal" background checks – where individuals perform background checks on themselves – can be helpful in ensuring that personal information is kept safe from identity theft.
MyBackgroundCheck.com – a pioneer in consumer requested background checks – provides “personal” background checks that individuals perform on themselves to ensure that their personal information is current, accurate, and secure from identity theft. Over one million consumers have purchased background checks through MyBackgroundCheck.com.
To learn how personal background checks can help prevent identity theft on social networking sites like Facebook and Twitter, visit www.mybackgroundcheck.com, email info@mybackgroundcheck.com, or call 1-800-503-2364. Follow MyBackgroundCheck.com on Twitter at www.twitter.com/MyBackgroundChk.
tahearn@mybackgroundcheck.com