Guest Post: “She’s Cute, But Is She Really Your Friend?”

We all get them, the random friend requests from a girl who’s only photo you can see is…well…intriguing. Do you accept them to add to your friend count or up the beauty level of your friend lineup? No! Cyber criminals are using pictures of pretty girls and guys to get at your personal information. Kelly Batke of Faronics explains below:

Getting friend requests on Facebook can make us feel special; especially when the ‘supposed’ friend is nice on the eyes.

Unfortunately hackers are using this to their advantage and creating phony profiles of alluring women to lure victims into divulging private data.

The scary part is that not only do people accept friend requests based solely on a nice profile, but also they are willing to reveal personal, sensitive information to these people in an online conversation.

Things like birthdates, email addresses, home towns and a whole lot of other information are basically handed over to cyber criminals looking to steal your identity.

So a few words of warning: You now not only need to be careful about what you say online about yourself, but now you need to be cautious about who you befriend or at least engage in conversation.

Befriending unknown people not only puts you at risk, but also leaves your Facebook friends subject to cybercrime too. Be a good friend, and say no to unknown friends.