MySpace Scams

MySpace has 100 million members, including celebrities and a few fakes, but two Internet sleuths are separating them out. Irish poet Bryant McGill, 36, discovered a MySpace profile for an author he recognized as an impostor, the Wall Street Journal reported.

MySpace rules forbid impostors, but has no verification procedures. Users must only provide an e-mail address, name, gender, birth date and password. McGill and comedian Jim Karol decided to set their own MySpace page called ‘100% Verified Celebs and MySpace Personalities,’ which checks out profiles at no cost.

Individuals can apply to McGill and Karol for a seal of approval. They are then quizzed to see how easily they can answer relevant questions. The duo has verified 167 celebs so far, from actor Gary Busey to Cher, winner of the television reality show, ‘Beauty and the Geek.’ ‘I am getting obsessed with figuring out who is real and who is fake,’ Karol said. Some celebrities don`t worry about impostors. ‘Fan sites help promote the show virally,’ TV talk host Carson Daly said. His official MySpace profile has 29,000 friends.

The above screenshot is the latest in MySpace spam bulletins. These have been appearing more and more. Usually the link you click on is a redirector link to go to an affiliate website. This however is not the worst part about the bulletin post. All of these bulletins are not being posted by your MySpace friends. They are being posted by someone who hijacked their profile.

If you found that you or some of your friends have posted this bulletin, then change your password immediately or message your friends and tell them to change their password immediately as well.

Most likley they were somehow redirected to a MySpace phishing site setup to steal their password. Never enter your password on sites other then MySpace. Some site may be setup to look like MySpace so remember to always check for the MySpace url in the address bar.

I just recieved some more info about the MY SPACE dangers. I found out exactly how thieves are locating houses by using MY SPACE combined with a second awful site.When you sign up for “Your Space” you enter the following information:
Name, Age, City & State, Zodiac Sign, height, build, children’s info, hobbies, marital status and occupation. You may think that this information is innocent but it is not AT ALL.

There is another web site called “zabba.com” this site is a free search engine used to locate addresses & phone numbers (Even Unlisted #’s!) of anybody worldwide! All the person needs is your name. If they can enter your city as well it will help narrow down the amount of people they have to search through. However, since YOU listed your birthdate or age or your zodiac sign on MY SPACE, finding out which “Bob Jones” you are will be a breeze.

Once they have determined your address they cross reference this with your occupation listed on MY SPACE. If you are a “Hot Single, Night Shift Bartender at Lucky’s” they all ready know when you are not going to be home.

Parents are even using MY SPACE as a way to show friends their pictures of their lovely children - BAD IDEA. Any thieves or predators can now stalk your family from the privacy of their own home.
If “Your Space” says you “have two sons - ages 4 and 8 who are honor roll students at Parker Elementary”, this tells thieves that when you are not home, nor are they.
You can even reverse the rolls - parents, your children can say, “My mom works at the dentist office and my dad works at ford”.

Here’s a little more IMPORTANT, IMPORTANT about Zabba.com
whether it is cross referenced with MY SPACE or not, you can use it to find out some ones name, address, phone number, PARENTS NAMES, MOTHERS MAIDEN NAME, GRANDPARENTS ans every place your family has lived. This is very scary. I didn’t believe it. I entered my name and EVERYTHING listed appeared. Even how many criminal violations I have had (traffic tix).

I want to see if there is a way to get removed from the list. I was told that if you sign up for things on the internet you MUST read the fine print before you submit your info. I was told that sites can sell your presoanl information to third parites, zabba.com could easily be buying this info.
If you are interested in seeing EXACTLY what I have been talking about, I went to MY SPACE and found a perfect example of a profile. Here’s the link (Please copy and paste the entire link into your browser.):

http://profile.myspace.com/index.cfm?fuseaction=user.viewprofile&friendid=47386876  

******This is 29 year old woman. She innocently posted many pics of her children, husband to be and her self. She EVEN writes: “I spend my weekends watching my kids play soccer, basketball or baseball. I like to talk on the phone to anyone who will listen. I love to lay in bed all day on a Sunday and watch MTV with Mike.”

If anybody has more information about zabba.com or MY SPACE plase send it to me.

HERE’S THE LINK, try it for yourself:
http://www.melissadata.com/cgi-bin/peoplefinder.asp

Myspace.com and other similar web sites have been in the news a lot lately. The reason that they are in the news is because kids get on these web sites and are able to post lots of personal information, and anyone can get access to that information. You may encounter argumentative teens asking, “What is the big deal mom?” or “What is the big deal dad? I’m just putting a little bit of information out there.”

The problem is this. First of all, when kids start to put information on Myspace, they are often doing so with peers standing over their shoulder or in the same room; their friends will encourage them to put more and more information there.

Secondly, teens are at an age where they trust the people that are on the other end of the computer more than they really should. There is some good research that suggests that kids are very trusting of strangers online when there is no good reason for that.

Finally, kids are at an age where they’re willing to take risks. You can talk to them about this, but they don’t see the risk in the same way that you do.

 A 25-year-old man charged with luring a 15-year-old girl over the Internet and then sexually assaulting her was released yesterday after posting $75,000 bail.

Kalani Trujillo was charged with two counts each of first-degree sexual assault and third-degree sexual assault. Trujillo posted bail yesterday and was released from custody, the city prosecutor’s office said.
Trujillo and the girl met on the MySpace.com Web site and struck up a friendship. On July 10, Trujillo picked up the girl near her home and took her to his Salt Lake home, according to an affidavit filed in Honolulu District Court.

Once at his home, the two went into Trujillo’s bedroom and began to kiss, the affidavit said. Trujillo then asked the girl to remove her clothes, which she did, and the two had sex, the affidavit said.
In Hawai’i, it is a criminal offense for anyone to have sex with minors younger than 16 if the accused is more than five years older than the minor and is not married to the minor. In Trujillo’s case, he knew that the girl was 15, the affidavit said.

The girl reported the incident to police and identified Trujillo to police from a photographic lineup, the affidavit said.
On July 28, police with a search warrant went to Trujillo’s home and arrested him. Police said they also seized an unregistered handgun, but he has yet to be charged with that offense, the prosecutor’s office said.

The House of Representatives has overwhelmingly passed the Deleting Online Predators Act, which would require public schools and libraries to block student access to commercial social-networking sites such as MySpace.com.

The measure passed 410-15 on July 26.

DOPA would require public schools and libraries receiving federal funds for Internet access to provide a “technology protection measure” for minors to protect them from harmful material on the Internet, including child pornography, material that is obscene or harmful to minors, or “commercial social networking website(s) or chat room(s) unless used for an educational purpose with adult supervision.”

As applied to libraries, the measure provides that the “technology protection measure” must protect “against access by minors without parental authorization to a commercial social networking website or chat room, and informs parents that sexual predators can use these websites and chatrooms to prey on children.”

According to the factual findings in the bill, sexual predators often “approach minors on the Internet using chat rooms and social networking websites” and that “one in five children has been approached sexually on the Internet.”

“I am extremely pleased that the House moved so quickly to pass this important legislation,” said the measure’s chief sponsor, Rep. Michael G. Fitzpatrick, R-Pa., in a press release. “This legislation is the first of its kind to address the growing use of social networking sites by sexual predators. Passage of the “Deleting Online Predators Act” demonstrates Congress’ commitment to safeguarding America’s families.”

Not everyone supports the proposed legislation. The American Library Association expressed disappointment July 26 at the House action.

“This unnecessary and overly broad legislation will hinder students’ ability to engage in distance learning and block library computer users from accessing a wide array of essential Internet applications including instant messaging, email, wikis and blogs,” said ALA president Leslie Burger in a news release.

“Under DOPA, people who use library and school computers as their primary conduits to the Internet will be unfairly blocked from accessing some of the web’s most powerful emerging technologies and learning applications,” Burger said. “As libraries are already required to block content that is “harmful to minors” under the Children’s Internet Protection Act (CIPA), DOPA is redundant and unnecessary legislation.”

Mark Uncapher, senior vice president and counsel for the Information Technology Association of America, also expressed opposition to DOPA.

“We have concerns that the legislation moved quickly without thorough committee review, particularly given existing law such as the Children’s Internet Protection Act,” Uncapher said.

CIPA, which the U.S. Supreme Court upheld from First Amendment challenge in United States v. American Library Association (2003), requires public schools and libraries to adopt an Internet safety policy that protects minors from online obscenity, child pornography and other material harmful to minors.

ITAA’s position is that DOPA provides less flexibility than CIPA and is redundant.

“We are concerned that DOPA would micromanage schools and libraries (in their) management of their E-Rate funded systems,” Uncapher added. E-Rate is a federal program that makes some technologies more affordable for eligible schools and libraries.

The question now is whether a similar measure will be introduced for similarly quick passage in the Senate. Jeff Urbanchuk, Fitzpatrick’s press secretary, said House supporters were waiting for a companion bill to be introduced in the Senate. “We do think it will happen,” he said.