Feds warn on social networking fraudsters

James Riley
Tuesday, 09 March 2010 12:46

IT Policy - Government Tech Policy

Consumers are putting themselves at risk of identity theft by listing too much information on social networking sites, the Australian Federal Police have warned.

The AFP has issued a general warning on identity theft risks, but acknowledged that online fraud particularly affected young consumers.

The AFP's High Tech Crime Operation acting national manager Karl Kent said that while social networking sites had their place, too much personal data was being put into the public domain.

"Young people in particular are not aware of the risks of accepting friendship requests from people they do not know and have never met," Kent said. "Children are providing personal details on these sites such as their full name, date of birth, their place of residence and even the school they attend."

He said online fraudsters can use this information to open credit card accounts and commit financial crimes in the child's name. And once this kind of personal data was in the public domain it became difficult to retrieve.

Kent said the Federal Police advised users to change the default privacy settings on their social network of choice to more secure settings.

"Think about the type of personal information you share online and how it might be used by others," Kent said.

"Consider protecting the personal information of your friends and family. Identity theft and fraud is happening now and we all need to protect our personal details," he said.