Identities Stolen with a Click!!!

CorpusCallosum · **Identities Stolen with a Click!!! -** 02-11-2008, 10:12 PM

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Organised crime groups are turning to social networking sites and other online forums to steal personal identities and extort money, authorities have warned.

The trend is also fuelling black markets for trading identity information and ill-gotten personal financial details over the internet.
"It's a totally different landscape now," Australian High Tech Crime Centre acting director Peter Sykora said.

Crime groups mine the vast amount of personal information available online — especially on networking sites like Facebook, MySpace, Bebo or Second Life — to help reconstruct a personal identity for their own ends or to sell it on to the highest bidder.

Mr Sykora said it takes just a few snippets of identity information to launch a personalised spam email, which with one click from the victim releases malicious code, or "malware", that can intercept banking password and authentication details.
But the level of personal detail on networking sites and other open forums alone can be enough to take over a person's identity, LogicaCMG security executive Ajoy Ghosh said.

"I've seen numerous examples where there is enough information available to create a line of credit in someone's name or take over an existing line of credit," he said.

Police enjoy some success prosecuting those who profit from stolen personal details, but say they are hamstrung by an enemy that is difficult to identify and often operates in countries with weak regulatory regimes.

And no matter how tough-to-crack online banking services become, bank customers who are gullible enough to click on a scam URL or simply too trusting when posting otherwise private information on the internet, can find their savings accounts drained or their credit limit maxed out within hours of an attack.

Lets hope people like this stay away from GCZ!!!