Phishing On Social Networking Sites - How To Protect Yourself On MySpace

Today’s topic is about PHISHING!!!

It may have happened to you already…It has happened to me…(right on MySpace).

I just emailed a girl about one of her bulletins on MySpace, and she replied back to me saying that she did not post that bulletin. I gave her some immediate advice, from someone that has already been there…

1. MySpace does not really want to hear about it. They know it is out there, but they do give some instructions on what to do to fix the problem. What is done, is done now.

A. Change your password immediately (they don’t tell you this, but I will…Any other account you may have at a major “internet” zone, such as hotmail, yahoo, bank accounts, etc, etc, with the same login info (your email address and password) they will be able to access too if they are smart enough to go there. This is the advice MySpace gives out.

B. Go change the passwords to these other accounts posted above. (My personal advice)

C. Go to your Bulletin section in your account on MySpace and delete any bulletins they posted in your name…(They posted bulletins to these raunchy singles sites under my account…Not Cool People!). (My personal advice)

Phishing may be lurking around the corner waiting to pounce on you people…

Here are a few tips on how to prevent yourself from being victimized by these “phishers”:

1. Major websites, such as Google, MySpace, Bank Institutions, PayPal WILL NOT ask you for your password information in an email, etc…Go to the site yourself in a new window you have opened, and type in the website address you know it to be…Do NOT use links that have been emailed to you!

2. If when you login to your account, there are no pending required updates that were “so important” to update, please, if you can, find a way to report it to these websites.

3. Even if you are unsure as to whether you have been phished or not, update your passwords periodically (more frequently if you feel like it).

4. Also, help each other out. If you see some random and weird bulletin posted by one of your friends, that does not seem like it was actually them, for example what they posted on my bulletins, email them and help them out by alerting them to that fact.

Just another day on the computer…

Have a Marvelous Day Guys! God Bless You!

Kimberly Edwards