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Identity Theft of Social Security Numbers Using Facebook

This recent video from Yahoo shows how easy it is for identity thieves to steal Social Security numbers just by using the information you share online. If you share your birthdate, name, and hometown in your Facebook profile, you are already at risk.

Click Here to learn more about protecting yourself online and on Facebook.

John Sileo is an information survival expert whose clients include the Department of Defense, Pfizer, Homeland Security, FDIC, FTC, Federal Reserve Bank, Blue Cross Blue Shield and hundreds of corporations and organizations of all sizes. He is the author of Privacy Means Profit and earns his keep delivering highly motivational identity theft speeches.

Posted in Burning Questions (Video), Identity Theft Prevention, Online Privacy, Video Tips by Identity Theft Speaker .
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Facebook Boiling the Privacy Frog (You)

Facebook is preparing to give away your phone number and address to app developers and advertisers.

The frog is officially beginning to boil. Just check out all of the articles swirling around on the internet about Facebook’s latest attempt to release more of your information without your consent. This time they want to give out your phone number and address. They were pretty clear that the reason they want this information is to pass it on to developers of apps such as Farmville and advertisers that want to bolster their profile on you. They released the post late Friday afternoon – so late in fact that many news outlets didn’t pick it up until Monday. Many are accusing Facebook of trying to bury the news.

Here is what was posted:

Posted in Cyber Data Security, Identity Theft Prevention, Online Privacy by Identity Theft Speaker .
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Facebook Safety: 7 Deadly Data Mistakes

Facebook Safety will make headlines in 2011, as it will be the year when identity theft, data breach, cyber stalking and cyber-bullying will move heavily into social networking. Social networking is the perfect platform for these crimes, as it aggregates vast quantities of your sensitive personal information that a social engineer (con artist), corporate spy, identity thief, stalker or regular old burglar needs to take advantage of you. It’s a one-stop data shop. As I speak around the country on information survival, I hear a lot of first-hand accounts of how people have been taken advantage of using their Facebook profile (among other social networking sites, but Facebook is definitely the big winner). Here are the Top 7 Deadly Facebook Data Mistakes (in no particular order, and unfortunately the list is not even close to exhaustive) that I address in my workbook, The Facebook Safety Survival Guide:

Posted in Identity Theft Prevention by Identity Theft Speaker .
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Facebook Reveals the End of Your Privacy | Sileo

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The many changes that Facebook has been making recently have users nervous. Nervous because they are lacking the control that they once had over their privacy on the social networking site. While Facebook has never been the mecca of privacy, the recent and swift changes they are making has created more of an issue for users. One by one they are voicing their concerns with the new features and why they feel Facebook is slowly revealing the end of your privacy.

Facebook and privacy issues go hand in hand.

Here are a few of the new features; although they are snazzy, they have many users concerned.

Posted in Cyber Data Security, Identity Theft Prevention, Online Privacy by Identity Theft Speaker .
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Facebook Email: Putting Every Last Egg in One Basket

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Facebook wants a piece of every social interaction you have, which is why they are poised to offer you a free email account, just like Gmail or Hotmail.

Facebook’s newest features (email and eventually a built-in search engine) are aimed at making their website your one-stop shop for all things internet. Rumor has it that at 10:30am PT, Facebook will offer their existing users email addresses. And millions of existing users will take them up on their offer because it will be cool to have a Facebook email account and because we are all in short supply of email accounts to check 24/7. Other sources are saying that Facebook will soon be offering a search engine as well.

Posted in Fraud Detection & Prevention, Identity Theft Prevention, Online Privacy by Identity Theft Speaker .
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Fired Over Facebook Post

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Can your Facebook status messages get you fired?

After a ruling on a current legal battle, they may! In a recent ground-breaking case involving social media usage by employees, specifically Facebook, one woman is challenging the cause of being fired. The National Labor Relations Board has brought a case against a Connecticut ambulance service, American Medical Response, for firing an employee after she used Facebook to vent her work frustrations. The employer accused the employee of violating their privacy policy by posting a disparaging remark that read, “love how the company allows a 17 to become a supervisor” – a 17 is the term they use for a psychiatric patient.

Posted in Online Privacy by Identity Theft Speaker .
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Facebook Offers New Deals: The Cost is Your Privacy

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According to TIME Newsfeed, Facebook is taking on a new marketing giant – Groupon. Groupon.com has gained popularity extremely fast  due to the huge discounts they offer users on a daily basis. Their average discount ranges from 50% to 80% off of food, services, shops and entertainment. They boast over 18 million subscribers and have sold over 12 million deals. It is no wonder that Facebook would want a piece of the action — when Groupon featured clothing giant GAP on their site, they sold 400,000 deals, making them $11 million.

But there is a catch: Facebook Deals only goes hand in hand with Facebook Places.  In order to receive the promotions, you have to use their location sharing app and “check in” to get the deal. In other words, to gain the benefits offered by Facebook Deals, you have to sacrifice more privacy. Groupon only asks users for their city location in order to tailor deals to their area. To take advantage of a deal, you must share your address and billing information, and that is done on their secure checkout site.

Posted in Fraud Detection & Prevention, Identity Theft Prevention, Online Privacy by Identity Theft Speaker .
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Facebook Privacy Breach – Eventually, We’ll Lose our Trust

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According to a Wall Street Journal investigation, Facebook apps are sharing more about you than you think.

The Journal stated in their article, Facebook in Privacy Breach, that many of the most popular applications on the site are transmitting personal information about you and even your friends to third party advertisers and data companies. Apps such as BumperSticker, Marketplace, or Zynga’s Farmville (with over 50 million users) can be sharing your Facebook User ID with these companies. This can give as little information as your name, or as much as your entire Facebook Profile. In some cases, your data is being shared even if you have set your Facebook privacy settings to disallow this type of sharing.

According to the Journal:

Posted in Identity Theft Prevention, Online Privacy by Identity Theft Speaker .
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6 Things You Should Never Reveal on Facebook

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Yahoo.com just published the following article that every Facebook user should read. I recommend you follow each of these suggestions, and if you want to learn more, read my Facebook Safety Survival Guide.

6 Things You Should Never Reveal on Facebook

by Kathy Kristof

The whole social networking phenomenon has millions of Americans sharing their photos, favorite songs and details about their class reunions on Facebook, MySpace, Twitter and dozens of similar sites. But there are a handful of personal details that you should never say if you don’t want criminals — cyber or otherwise — to rob you blind, according to Beth Givens, executive director of the Privacy Rights Clearing House.

The folks at Insure.com also say that ill-advised Facebook postings increasingly can get your insurance canceled or cause you to pay dramatically more for everything from auto to life insurance coverage. By now almost everybody knows that those drunken party photos could cost you a job, too.

Posted in Identity Theft Prevention, Online Privacy by Identity Theft Speaker .
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