Planning For Your Life

In a Nov. 26, 2007 column I praised Facebook, But I am now tempering my recommendation. The social networking Web site has become littered with scams that are not easy to spot. Here’s one I fell for: A scammer posing as a FORBES colleague posted a link on my Facebook wall. Clicking on the link handed my e-mail address and Facebook password to the scammer. Within days the scoundrel had posted promotional spams under my name to my 1,213 friends.

To my unsuspecting Facebook friends, I looked like a pest. To my Web-savvy friends, I looked like a rube who had fallen for a prank. This may astonish the kids and propeller heads who run Facebook, but business professionals do not seek either reputation.

A Facebook spokesman e-mailed: “While we believe we have one of the strongest security systems protecting users on the Internet, we face an ongoing ‘arms race’ with spammers and others who constantly develop ever more creative and sophisticated tools to trick Facebook users into sharing their passwords. They use this information to break into accounts and extend the cycle further. Facebook is currently in the midst of one particularly aggressive onslaught.”

Fine, but Facebook blew it by failing to warn its members of these scams. My advice: Tread cautiously on these broad-population social networks. Never use a password from one of your sensitive e-mail, banking or portfolio accounts.
Read Rich Karlgaard’s daily blog at http://blogs.forbes.com/digitalrules or visit his home page at www.karlgaard.com

http://www.forbes.com/forbes/2008/0915/031.html