Facebook: Press 2 For Law Enforcement
I received an email last night from a well-known TV anchor wanting my input on a new Facebook issue. He’d read that when calling Facebook Headquarters, the automated attendant comes on and gives you options to reach each department, and the second option was to press 2 for “law enforcement.”
It could seem odd to many, but it’s true. If you call the Facebook Headquarters (650-543-4800) and reach the switchboard, the 1st option is “For customer support, press 1″ and the second option is “For law enforcement, press 2″. Law enforcement comes ahead of business development, marketing, press, and employment verification in the list of options.When you press 2, the next message says: “This message is only for members of law enforcement. Please note that due to a very large volume of incoming calls, the current call back time is two to four business days. For a faster response, please leave your work authorized email address… A member of Facebook’s security team will email in a timely manner.” Which means that Facebook is very busy fielding calls from law enforcement.
The anchor, and the rest of us, want to know why!
Business Identity Theft Radio Interview, Part II
John recently did a second radio interview on business identity theft for New Construction Strategies hosted by Ted Garrison. The construction industry, like most industries, battles with data theft on a daily basis. Insider theft, cyber crimes, social networking exposure – these are just a few of the areas that businesses need to defend against in the information economy. Listen to the interview to learn more.
| “Privacy Means Profit” John Sileo with Ted Garrison |  |
Data breach, identify theft, and corporate espionage can cause huge damage if you don’t stop them upfront because the impact goes right to your bottom line. “We spend thousands of dollars on our computers but we don’t necessarily put the money into protecting the data that is on them,” reports identity theft expert John Sileo. Listen Sileo explain how this can destroy your company and how to prevent this disaster.
|  |
Business Identity Theft Radio Interview, Part I
John recently did a radio interview on business identity theft for New Construction Strategies hosted by Ted Garrison. The construction industry, like most industries, battles with data theft on a daily basis. Insider theft, cyber crimes, social networking exposure – these are just a few of the areas that businesses need to defend against in the information economy. Listen to the interview to learn more.
| “DODGING THE HIT FROM IDENTITY THEFT: WHY YOU SHOULD CARE” John Sileo with Ted Garrison | |
Data breach, identify theft, and corporate espionage can cause huge damage if you don’t stop them upfront because the impact goes right to your bottom line. Listen to John Sileo, author of Stolen Lives, describe the horrors of not protecting yourself as well as what you must do to protect yourself.
| |
How to Disable Facebook Places
Last week Facebook introduced a new location tracking application called Facebook Places. This gives users the ability to check in with Facebook from their mobile device and update their friends (and even tag their friends) on where they are. What many Facebook users don’t realize is that this tool is currently activated by default, and in order to turn it off, users have to go in and adjust their privacy settings. Until you do that, your friends can check you in to different locations (and you may not even be there!).
Here is the step by step process to disable Facebook Places:
1. Log into your Facebook account, and at the top right drop down menu under Account click Privacy Settings.Once you are in Privacy Settings you will see this screen:
2. Click Custom (if that isn’t your selection already) and then click below 0n Customize Settings.
3. You should see the following screen, where you will need to make 2 changes – first, to Things I share and then to Things others share. Under Things I share click on the drop-down box next to Places I check in to click custom and chose to make this visible to Only Me.
5. Scroll down on the Customize page to Things others share:
6 Abuses for Facebook Places
Facebook just added a check-in or location-sharing feature, much like the one provided by FourSquare.com. The feature is designed to accomplish three main tasks:
- Help people share where they are in a social context
- See which friends are near by
- Discover nearby places and new places through friends’ profiles
But, by default, it also allows your friends to tag and publicize your location for you. It’s like being tagged in a photo, except the other person gets to share your location instead of your picture (even if you don’t want others to know where you are, and even if you are not there).
Here are some of the rarely discussed ways that Facebook Places will be used (now or in the future) that you might want to think about before checking in:
- Facebook will sell (share) your current location and profile to stores in your vicinity so that they can server you hyper-targeted advertising (e.g., here’s a coupon for the store you are about to enter).
- Friends who aren’t actually your friends will be able to check you in to questionable Places even when you are not there (the practical jokes for the Check Friends In feature are limitless)
Child Identity Theft Expert – Part IV Protection
In Parts I – III we talked about how easy it is for your child’s identity to be kidnapped and who does it; now let’s get to the heart of…
Protecting Your Children
Acting now on behalf of your child will protect them from consequences common to child victims:
- Starting adulthood with a credit rating low enough to scare away the hungriest of loan sharks
- Being denied a first loan, credit card or apartment rental because of a crime committed 10-15 years earlier (the passage of time makes this crime very hard to clear up)
- Being denied access to college or a new job
- Having a warrant out for her arrest for crimes that she didn’t commit
In the same way that you can’t protect your children from every bruise and scrape, you can’t entirely remove the risk of identity theft. You can, however, prevent or soften the fall if it does happen. Take these steps first:
- Stop giving out your child’s personal information. Until you are confident that it is absolutely necessary to receive the services desired, withhold their personal information. More than 80% of organizations that ask for your child’s Social Security Number don’t actually need it to establish services. If you must give it, ask them how they will use it, how long they will keep it and how it will be protected while they have it. Vigilance is highly effective. Never carry your child’s SSN with you.
Child Identity Theft Expert – Part III
If you’re thinking “this couldn’t happen to my child,” think again! Let’s look at
Who Does This?
The identity thief is not always a stranger. In many cases, it’s a relative with bad credit who takes advantage of a child’s pristine credit. Conveniently, these family members generally have access to the information necessary to maximize the fraud with little attention.
This seems absurd, but imagine a parent who is strapped for cash, has a bad credit score and needs to buy groceries. In this case, short-term thinking blinds the relative or friend to long-term consequences. In other instances, the child’s future is not taken into consideration at all.
Frankly, it doesn’t take much to get the crime underway; all a criminal needs is the child’s name and Social Security Number. These pieces of personal information are exposed in a variety of ways:
- When registering for daycare, schools and recreational sports
- On medical, dental and hospital records
- When joining organizations like the Girl Scouts, Boy Scouts, etc.
- When the above information is permanently stored and accessed by volunteers or employees
- When one of the above organizations is breached by a hacker or malicious software
- When an adult befriends your child on a social networking site (MySpace, Facebook) and eventually socially engineers private information out of them
Child Identity Theft Expert – Part II
Were you surprised the other day when I said that your children are highly attractive targets of identity thieves because they have untouched and unblemished credit records? Let me tell you just how easy it happens.
How Does It Happen?
All an identity thief needs to ruin your child’s bright financial future is her name and Social Security Number.
“Shouldn’t my child’s age show up on any credit background check, shouldn’t the merchant recognize that the person in front of them buying a car on credit isn’t seven years old?” you ask.
Yes, it should, but the people screening the credit report rarely give it the time and care necessary to detect fraud.
All too often, background checks involve simply matching the name and the Social Security Number provided. This leaves doors wide open for scandalous minds to wreak havoc on your child’s perfect credit. The most unsettling part is that the age of the applicant (in this case, the person posing as your child) becomes official with the credit bureaus upon the first credit application. This makes clearing a sabotaged credit record even more difficult because you have to prove to the credit bureau that your child is only seven and isn’t responsible for thousands of dollars of debt.
Facebook ‘Dislike Button’ is a Scam!
According to Cnet.com, security firm Sophos has highlighted yet another scam that’s zipping around Facebook in the form of a third-party application, this one spreading in the form of links claiming to be from friends that encourage members to install a Facebook “dislike button.”
Sophos wrote about the scam in a post on Monday, pointing out that a link to it tends to appear in wall posts that appear to be from the user’s friends (“I just got the Dislike button, so now I can dislike all of your dumb posts lol!!”) but which are actually automated messages from friends who have already been duped. The scam’s purpose is to force users to complete a survey contained in the application, a bit of trickery that has already been known to be perpetuated through scam links like “Justin Bieber trying to flirt” and “Anaconda coughs up a hippo,” the two of which presumably would be enticing to rather different demographics of Facebook users.
As Facebook’s surging membership numbers have blazed past 500 million around the world, its channels of fast social connection and messaging have become a prime target for scammers and viruses.This one’s particularly nasty because a “dislike button,” offering some kind of counterpoint to Facebook’s own “like” button is something that many members have been clamoring for.
Child Identity Theft Expert: A Growing Concern – Part I of 4
Are you as protective of your kids as I am of mine?
My wife and two highly-spirited daughters are more than just the center of my universe – they are the compass by which I set my course in every aspect of life. If something is not good for the family, then it isn’t good for me. And that means that I want to do everything in my power to keep them safe.
You and I are called on to protect our children from many things, starting in the womb. Even before they are born, we practice good preventative care. We take specially designed pre-natal exercise classes, coax ourselves to eat right for their benefit, learn CPR and Love and Logic and screen regularly for signs of trouble. Once they are born, we provide the best nourishment, the finest medical care, ample playtime, rest and an infinite flow of unconditional love. You get the point… we do everything in our power to prevent complications and to give them the best chance to grow up healthy, happy and in harmony with the world around them. That is our responsibility, our purpose and our joy.
But how often do you check their credit report? Their WHAT?! I can feel the surprise in your blank stare. I can hear your questions:
Sileo In the Media
Privacy Project Newsletter
Tools and tips for bulletproofing yourself against identity theft, data breach and corporate espionage. Subscribe to the newsletter and get John Sileo's 7 Survival Strategies for Starving Data Spies for FREE!
