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"The scammers have "done their research" using publicly available information, including sites like Facebook, he said. They identify vulnerabilities to exploit.

by ninv 10y ago

"The scammers have "done their research" using publicly available information, including sites like Facebook, he said. They identify vulnerabilities to exploit." Stop posting personal info on Facebook, Instagram and Linkedin. Best way to keep in touch is Whatsapp and any other personal messenger app.

duskwuff 10y ago
> Best way to keep in touch is Whatsapp… …which is owned by Facebook, and shares account information with the Facebook Platform? http://www.theverge.com/2016/8/25/12638698/whatsapp-to-start-sharing-user-data-with-facebook http://www.theverge.com/2016/8/25/12638698/whatsapp-to-start...
- logicuce 10y ago
  But that information is not available to a random stalker
  - ninv 10y ago
    Exactly that's my point. They were targeting single women and elderly people and looking up this information on Facebook. Checkout this case http://www.bbc.com/news/magazine-37735369 http://www.bbc.com/news/magazine-37735369 In this case the scammer recorded the video and threatened to distribute video to facebook contacts. A half hour later I get a message on Facebook. "Listen," it says, "I'm a man, and I recorded a video of you masturbating. Do you want to see it?" He sends me the video. It's about five minutes of me masturbating. "I have a list of your friends and family from Facebook - your mum, your sister, your cousins," he says. "You have one week to send me to send me 5,000 euros (£4,450), or I'll send them the video." Keep everything private! I do not understand why i am getting downvote for this suggestion.
- rdtsc 10y ago
  Are you suggesting these people work for Whatsapp? You could make the news with that kind of info.
  - duskwuff 10y ago
    Not at all. Just pointing out the inconsistency in recommending that people avoid social media sites like Facebook... and use a tool that's owned by Facebook, and which shares account information with it, as a replacement.
    - rdtsc 10y ago
      But it is a different situation. The implication is people posted on Facebook and it wasn't Facebook who ran the IRS scheme by reading the data on the backend, the data was shared by the users. WhatsApp doesn't work like Facebook's main product, it is more like SMS for example. So the ownership of Facebook is irrelevant in this case. Now perhaps it is possible to argue if someone hacked into Facebook to steal all data. But I don't think that's the case here.
  - ninv 10y ago
    No one is suggesting this, you are implying this. Stop distorting the conversation
    - rdtsc 10y ago
      The implication is posting to Facebook and then using WhatsApp is the same and IRS scammers could have gotten the information from both because they are owned by Facebook. But the point of ownership of Facebook is moot unless the claim is that somehow all this data was scrapped from the backend (WhatsApp is a messaging app, even claims end to end encryption too).

by ninv 10y ago

duskwuff 10y ago

> Best way to keep in touch is Whatsapp… …which is owned by Facebook, and shares account information with the Facebook Platform? http://www.theverge.com/2016/8/25/12638698/whatsapp-to-start-sharing-user-data-with-facebook http://www.theverge.com/2016/8/25/12638698/whatsapp-to-start...

logicuce 10y ago
But that information is not available to a random stalker
- ninv 10y ago
  Exactly that's my point. They were targeting single women and elderly people and looking up this information on Facebook. Checkout this case http://www.bbc.com/news/magazine-37735369 http://www.bbc.com/news/magazine-37735369 In this case the scammer recorded the video and threatened to distribute video to facebook contacts. A half hour later I get a message on Facebook. "Listen," it says, "I'm a man, and I recorded a video of you masturbating. Do you want to see it?" He sends me the video. It's about five minutes of me masturbating. "I have a list of your friends and family from Facebook - your mum, your sister, your cousins," he says. "You have one week to send me to send me 5,000 euros (£4,450), or I'll send them the video." Keep everything private! I do not understand why i am getting downvote for this suggestion.
rdtsc 10y ago
Are you suggesting these people work for Whatsapp? You could make the news with that kind of info.
- duskwuff 10y ago
  Not at all. Just pointing out the inconsistency in recommending that people avoid social media sites like Facebook... and use a tool that's owned by Facebook, and which shares account information with it, as a replacement.
  - rdtsc 10y ago
    But it is a different situation. The implication is people posted on Facebook and it wasn't Facebook who ran the IRS scheme by reading the data on the backend, the data was shared by the users. WhatsApp doesn't work like Facebook's main product, it is more like SMS for example. So the ownership of Facebook is irrelevant in this case. Now perhaps it is possible to argue if someone hacked into Facebook to steal all data. But I don't think that's the case here.
- ninv 10y ago
  No one is suggesting this, you are implying this. Stop distorting the conversation
  - rdtsc 10y ago
    The implication is posting to Facebook and then using WhatsApp is the same and IRS scammers could have gotten the information from both because they are owned by Facebook. But the point of ownership of Facebook is moot unless the claim is that somehow all this data was scrapped from the backend (WhatsApp is a messaging app, even claims end to end encryption too).