Anti-social Networking

There's another, less pleasant, side to social networking that may need some more consideration.

According to a report from the BBC, there's a growing concern about the amount of personal information lots of us are posting on social networking sites, such as MySpace and Facebook. According to the report, scam artists are learning to troll the sites, looking for information which may help them steal someone's identity.  The story quotes Neil Munroe, external affairs director for the credit reporting agency Equifax:

The problem is that people don't realise the significance of the kind of information they are putting out on the web and who may be accessing it.

More and more consumers are signing up to these sites every day and chances are they'll put on their date of birth, location, e-mail, job and marital status.

Fraudsters can use this information to steal an individual's identity and open accounts in their name.

It's not enough to keep me off LinkedIn, for example - but it is something I guess we need to keep in mind to avoid the thieves, scammers and grifters.

(Hat tip: MediaPost )