A 14-year old girl from New Jersey was sexually assaulted by a 29-year old man who was stalking her on Facebook. Michael Sebastian posed as a 17-year old on the social networking site and befriended the teenage girl. Their chats quickly became sexual in nature, and soon Sebastian asked to meet up with the victim.…

Most people might be surprised to find that Facebook keeps a record of just about all of your activity on the site. Actually, in this day and age, where privacy has officially been declared dead, it really isn’t all that surprising at all. If you live in the European Union, then you have the right…

Even with the explanations provided by Facebook about how their cookies helped protect the users, many remained skeptical of the true purpose of these cookies. Unwilling to take the company’s word as is, Representatives Joe Barton of Texas and Ed Markey of Massachusetts sent a letter to the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) requesting for an…

Facebook looks like it’s foraging for more ‘friends’ in Washington with the creation of its new Political Action Committee. Zuckerberg and Co. have just filed the necessary paperwork with the Federal Election Committee. This will enable the company to legally funnel donations to the candidates they feel will further their cause. “FB PAC will give…

Recently, there was a huge uproar over a discovery made by an Australian Technologist concerning Facebook’s cookies. Nik Cubrilovic analyzed Facebook’s cookies and saw that once you log out of the site, the cookies aren’t removed or deleted but simply changed. Your account ID is still embedded in these cookies, so whenever you visit a…

Recently, there was a huge uproar over a discovery made by an Australian Technologist concerning Facebook’s cookies. Nik Cubrilovic analyzed Facebook’s cookies and saw that once you log out of the site, the cookies aren’t removed or deleted but simply changed. Your account ID is still embedded in these cookies, so whenever you visit a…

How to Protect Yourself From Facebook Scams Given the dangers of social media as presented above, here are some practical tips on how to be safe from Facebook scams. 1. When in doubt, DON’T CLICK that LINK! This holds true for any internet activity such as using your email, surfing the net, using your instant…

How Do These Scams Spread? Having learned what the popular Facebook scams are and how to identify them, the next thing you need to know is how these scams spread. 1. Wall Posts: News Feed is the most common medium of Facebook scams. One your friend is infected, the link and message that is automatically…

How to Identify a Facebook Scam? Facebook scams may appear in different forms but there are a number of things they have in common that should help you identify possible Facebook Scams: 1. Paste a Code in your Browser: Anything in Facebook that prompts or lures you into pasting a code / URL into your…

According to the consumer fraud reporting research on internet scams, scam complaints and reports increased by more than 30% from 2008 to 2009 alone. More disturbing yet is the fact that more than 65% of these scams originated from theUS, followed closely byUK at 10.5% andNigeria at 7.5%. A line from a recent movie goes…

The Taunton Crown Court recently allowed a 19-year old sexual predator to keep his Facebook account despite his transgressions. The judge said that a Facebook ban would be ‘particularly excessive’ and that doing so would only deprive the teen of ‘social traffic’ taken for granted by his peers. Callum Dower had been using Facebook for…

It’s rare to find a teen these days who has yet to open a Facebook account. Yet, it’s also undeniable that these children put themselves at high risk just by having one. As such, it’s often up to the parents to ensure that their children are kept safe by keeping tabs on their online activity.…