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Protect Yourself From Facebook Impostors

By Cathy Finio
Asst. Opinion Editor

How many times a day do you check Facebook? With the majority of teenagers, as well as adults, having Facebook pages, it’s hard for many to not get addicted to the site. It’s a great way to keep up with old friends and check out what everybody has been doing. Even though it has many benefits, Facebook can easily be used as a tool to steal someone’s identity. Just ask Bryan Rutberg.

The Washington native scared his friends into frenzy after his status was updated to “Bryan NEEDS HELP URGENTLY!!!” One of Rutberg’s friends, Beny Rubinsetein, got a message from Rutberg’s account saying that he had been robbed at gunpoint in London and needed money to get back to the United States. Trying to help his friend, Rubinstein wired $1,143 to London in two installments.

Unfortunately, Rutberg had been sitting in his home in Seattle the entire time, unaware of anything that had happened. Recent accounts of extortion and false impersonation have begun making themselves known on Facebook. This is a fairly new trend for the Web site, and is something that many hope to put a stop to before it gets any worse. According to CNN.com, the Better Business Bureau issued a warning on its Web site in January to warn Facebook’s nearly 150 million users.

They cautioned users to know who their friends were and to keep sensitive information private. A case similar to Rutberg’s occurred in Wisconsin, where an 18-year-old was posing as a woman to get high school boys to send nude pictures of themselves to the account. The felon, Anthony Stancl of New Berlin, Wis., used the naked photos to force the young men into performing sexual acts with him.

Luckily, Stancl was caught and arrested on 12 felony complaints, including sexual assault of a child younger than 16 and possession of child pornography. Facebook spokesman Barry Schnitt did not think much of the impersonators. He told CNN that less than 1 percent of Facebook users experience these types of problems.
He said, “In many cases, the scammer has added a new contact e-mail to attempt to maintain control of the account.

To combat this, we’re instituting changes that will better notify users when their account is modified and empowering them to reverse these changes.” Some helpful advice to prevent this type of thing from happening again was offered, including creating a strong password, use and run anti-virus software on your computer and create more than one e-mail address when setting up your account.

I think this problem is something that will continue to happen unless something is done. The fact that somebody who is speaking for the Web site is proclaiming it doesn’t happen that often doesn’t make sense.
If the problem is ignored, it will keep on happening. Even though the Web site said it will do more to help out the problem, users have to help out as well. I know that I treat my Facebook account just as seriously as I do my e-mail account and online banking account.

If someone hacked onto my page and impersonated me, they could intentionally disrupt relationships with my friends and family members who have Facebook accounts. When Facebook was first created, only college students were allowed to set up accounts because the registration required a college or university e-mail address. Now, anyone from a high school freshman to my grandmother can get an account.

I think this increases the risk of false identity, and having less people on the site again could prevent things like this from happening. After hearing these stories, I think I’ll go change my Facebook password right now.