Facebook friends with spam and scams

GRAND RAPIDS, Mich. (WOOD) - One day on his Facebook wall, Tom Kutzli saw a picture of "some half-dressed girl ... It looked like she just had a tank top on, and kind of creepy, bent over, looking at a web cam."

It was a scam.

In one click, a rogue application designed to access personal information and e-mail addresses sent each of his friends a copy of the bogus message. In Kutzli's case, it was an adult singles service. The spammer generates money based on the amount of clicks it receives.

Resist the urge to click, social media pros say.

"You almost have to put yourself in a cynical state of mind whenever you're looking at anything on the computer, and you're going to click it," said Pete Brand, of Mindscape. He's a Web marketing pioneer who has been able to track some of the scams foisted through Facebook.

"That's what they do," he said of spammer scammers. "They either prey on someone's perversions, or they prey on their vanity."

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Controlling how you share -- Facebook's privacy settings

Web Threat Network Security

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Following the death of Osama bin Laden , a scam flashed through Facebook. What appeared to be a link to the death photos was instead a link that uploaded malware, infecting countless computers.

Almost weekly, it seems a new phishing scam emerges, such as links that show your "Top 10 Stalkers" or "Who's been searching for you?" In April, the Connecticut attorney general issued an inquiry into fraudsters setting up fake accounts, complete with a background including names and pictures.

Brand even found one of those fake profiles on my Facebook page.

"Natasha" lives in West Palm Beach, Fla., and looks a lot like Heidi Fleiss. Her relationship status is "complicated." Several of her friends' names are in Arabic or other languages.

What's troubling about the fake profile, experts say, is that crooks make friends in an effort to glean information -- birthdates, addresses and other personal information.

Hagen Frank is an assistant U.S. attorney who prosecutes federal Internet crimes. He said if you haven't taken advantage of the privacy and security settings on Facebook, you're at risk of a lot more than being poked.

"Putting down when they graduated high school, what day and month they were born, where they work, what town ... Your friends don't need to be told where you live," he said. "They're your friends, right?

"When you're online, you're not just inside your home anymore. You're not sitting in your living room. You're not sitting in your basement. You're out there in the world when you go online."

And by world, he means eastern European criminal syndicates, Chinese data hackers or the lurker in your own neighborhood.

Facebook states it "takes security very seriously, and devotes resources to protect people who use Facebook from spam and scams."

But Web watchers and experts say the problem isn't with Facebook.

"I don't think (the spam and scams) is going to be a problem for Facebook," Brand told 24 Hour News 8. "I think it's going to be a problem with people who are naive."

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A LOOK INSIDE A FACEBOOK ACCOUNT

Target 8 investigator Ken Kolker often exposes society's darker underbelly. He felt his children and family were shielded, and he's talked with his kids about being careful online.

With his permission, we audited his Facebook account. There was no security at all on his page.

"They could go to his Facebook page, do a search, find his Facebook -- which is wide open, find out who (his wife) is, where she works, all kinds of personal stuff, and then find out who the kids are," Brand said.

Law enforcement says it's a very real risk. Even something as simple as putting your birthdate on your page can provide crooks with a launch point for stealing your identity.

Kolker was certain he'd hidden his birthdate. But it was there, in plain sight.

"If they use other info that's on your Facebook page, they can piece it together," Frank said.

Kolker had also unwittingly exposed his family. Through his wall, we could access the pages of his wife and children, most of the pages wide open with little-to-no security settings. After seeing this, he said he wasn't comfortable with having all this information public.

"Look at your own Facebook account with strangers' eyes" Frank said. "And ask yourself, if I wanted to steal using this person's info, have I put enough on my Facebook page to give a crook that ability?"

Experts suggest:

• Don't give away specifics
• Take advantage of privacy settings
• Lock down your profile
• Before posting pictures and videos, consider what a criminal might see

"You have way too much information at your disposal to try to do whatever it is you want to do," Brand said. "You can't see the person you're communicating with, so you have to look at it with a critical eye, so you don't have potential problems.

Kolker immediately shored up security on his Facebook profile. And Kutzli, who got burned by a sexy picture,