It`s 20 December, My 21st birthday. A day where everyone considers it as a special day and moment in their life, so do i. Hence, I decided to do something quite interesting today. So, I am going to reveal and break the code of hacking, phishing especially. Lately, I have been read lots of bulletin posts and forwarded messages on Friendster warning about a new kind of virus spreading out on Friendster. At first, I just ignored it due to some reasons but it seems the situation is only likely to get worse and someone need to stop it before serious damages caused.

I have mentioned about Phishing above, It`s a scamming technique which is becoming a growing threat on the internet. The term "phishing", comes, unsurprisingly, from the word fishing, and follows a very similar approach.

Phishing is the act of sending an e-mail to a user falsely claiming to be an established legitimate enterprise in an attempt to scam the user into surrendering private information that will be used for identity theft. The e-mail directs the user to visit a Web site where they are asked to update personal information, such as passwords and credit card, social security, and bank account numbers, that the legitimate organization already has. The Web site, however, is bogus and set up only to steal the user’s information.

Since I am discussing about phishing on social network sites, especially on Friendster, Myspace and Facebook, I will reveal the manner how they do it on rapidly growing social network sites. Please do take note to every single step which written below because you can avoid yourself from being a victim though, if you know how the scamming technique works.


Firstly, Fraudsters and scammers will setup a phishing site which looks alike to a real web page ( Friendster`s log-in page ) not only on its layout but sometimes its domain too ( example - www.friendster1.com, http://friendster.blogspot.com ).

See the difference between the actual friendster`s web page and fake web page





[ Double click to view the image clearly ]

Next, After they have finished with the fake log-in page. They will spread it out on Friendster in many ways such as post it on bulletin, email and even submit it on your comment or testimonial box. They will post their fake log-in web page with text or image to redirect users to their fake log-in web page. We CANNOT embed any video or flash on friendster`s comment box, so it proves below comments just images.

Few samples of malicious comments





Next, Once a user clicked on the link or image, It will redirect the user to their fake Friendster`s log-in web page. Those who are not aware on this scamming technique will enter their personal information in order to log-in on the fake web page, thinking it's the actual Friendster site. Your username and password will be sent to the fraudster or scammer and obtained by them once you click on the " Log In " button. Indirectly, Now they have full control of your account on Friendster.

Lastly, They will spread out the link using your account to others especially those who are in your friends list. They may do it manually or using any robot. So, please dont be shocked if you receive any unusual or weird e-mail, post or comment from your friends. Because it has done without your friends knowledge because there is someone else gained control of their account and occasionally misusing it to get more victims.

That`s it! I have explained how they phishing an account on Friendster. Remember, even though Friendster has some vulnerabilities, Phishing has do nothing with it. It`s all about our lack of awareness when surfing internet and entering personal details on internet.

So if you are a victim of phishing, It`s still not too late for you to undo your previous mistakes. What are you waiting for?? Act fast before it`s too late. Save your account now!

• Solution :

• Your current username and password got hacked by the fraudster ( Scammer ), All that you must do now is change or reset your current password to a new password. ( Do it frequently to avoid yourself from be a victim of phishing, in the future. )

There are some easiest ways to avoid from being a phishing victim, i have listed it down. Hope it can help you to secure your privacy on social network sites.

• Precautions :
  

1. All Friendster ( or any other social network sites ) users should thus be wary and should always check whether they are in the actual www.friendster.com site before logging in. As a precaution, the Friendster site should be bookmarked and should not be accessed using any other external link.
2. Passwords for the Friendster account and email address should also be and different and frequently reset it.
3. Surf the Internet more securely by using Mozilla Firefox ( 3.0 or above ) web browser. This web browser has built-in Phishing and Malware Protection to help keep you safe online.

Let`s fight against this crime! We need to rise awareness of phishing among our Friendster, Facebook & Myspace users. Do share this post with your friends. Please copy and post this banner on your friends` comment box, blog and forum. Thanks in advance!



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keywords : friendster, hack, virus, trojan, remove, phishing