Brent Sweitzer was stuck in London, robbed of his money, phone and passport, his friends were informed in e-mails. The Atlanta man urgently needed their financial assistance, they were told.
Except Sweitzer, 35, didn’t send those e-mails. He was home in Cabbagetown.
His friends had become targets of sophisticated hackers who rerouted Sweitzer’s Yahoo account so any responses were forwarded to them. In this elaborate hoax, Sweitzer’s father called the London hotel where his son supposedly was staying, and a man confirmed Sweitzer was registered but “had stepped away.” Sweitzer had all of his e-mails and contact addresses disappear from his account moments after sending out warning messages.
No one sent money to these online thieves, but Sweitzer learned a tough lesson: It’s easy to become a victim of cyber crime.
Identity theft is nothing new. The Federal Trade Commission’s Consumer Sentinel Network received 1.3 million fraud complaints in 2009 alone, with 21 percent reporting identity theft. Sixty-two percent of people said the Internet, largely through e-mail, was the source of initial contact.
In 2009 alone, identity fraud totaled $54 billion from money taken, legal fees, work hours lost and general time spent rectifying things, according to one group. Georgia was particularly hard hit: It ranked seventh in identity theft complaints nationwide, with nearly 10,000 people saying they were victimized.
Now, identity theft experts are watching the evolution of a new intrusion as more people bare all on social networking sites and download risky mobile phone applications.
“We’re starting to see the convergence of social networking giving thieves the tools to break into other accounts,” said John Sileo, identity theft expert and author of “Privacy Means Profit.”
By sharing seemingly mundane personal details and preferences, people might be giving the bad guys clues about their security codes.
For example, by revealing your dog’s name, hometown and date of birth…