Elana Rivel was stunned and frightened when she found out someone was impersonating her online. It was an old college friend who tipped her off.
"He said that someone had sent him a chat message from me on /*Facebook*/ and through my e-mail account that said I was in London with my family, and I had been held up at gunpoint," she said.
Elana's friend immediately suspected that the message he received was bogus and that her accounts had been hacked.
"Elana's friend did exactly the right thing," said Kim Kleman of Consumer Reports. "When he became suspicious, he found a way to get through to the real Elana, and she immediately had that Facebook and e-mail account closed."
Consumer Reports says the best ways to protect your identity is to create a hard-to-guess password, using upper and lowercase letters mixed in with numbers. Also, leave your birth year off your profile to help prevent identity theft. And definitely use the site's privacy controls.
"We found that one in four households using Facebook either doesn't know about or doesn't choose to use privacy controls. Not using such controls can expose your pictures and other information to just about anybody on the Internet," Kleman said.
To set the controls on Facebook, go to "Account" on the upper right of the screen. Pick "Privacy Settings" and then decide what you want to share and with whom.
For example, photos and videos could be for "only friends" or "friends of friends."
As for Elana, she's reopened her Facebook account, but she says she's using a stronger password and plans on changing it frequently to thwart hackers.
Consumer Reports says posting information about going on vacation or business trips is another mistake people make. It leaves you vulnerable to break-ins.
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