allheart55 (Cindy E)
Administrator
Using the same username across the web? That may have its drawbacks…
Some scammers think the chances of the police ever catching them are low, but there's one thing they are afraid of: their mum.
Security researcher Christian Haschek tells the story of how he tried to sell some Apple gift cards online that he won in a competition, but ended up handing over the gift card codes... and not receiving any money in return.
Although the scammer tried to fade away, Haschek knew the usernames that the gift card robber had used on eBay and Reddit.
That eBay nickname had also been used on a freelance job search site, providing his first name, the first letter of his surname, and confirmations of his city.
The information collected so far brought Haschek to a likely Facebook profile belonging to the scammer - but its locked-down privacy settings prevented much further information being extracted.
No matter, one of the scammer's friends was a lot more lax with their Facebook privacy settings, and Haschek was able to trawl through four years' worth of old posts - eventually revealing the scammer's full name.
So, now what? Well, Haschek found the scammer's older brother and mother online, and sent them this message:
Check out Christian Haschek's blog post to find out what happened next.
So, what can we learn from this?
Well, when you reuse usernames across the web you're helping others pull the strands of information together to weave a picture of who you are, where you might live, and what your interests might be.
Furthermore, take Facebook privacy seriously and be careful what you post and how you share it. Sadly it's not enough for you to be careful with your online privacy - you also need your friends, family and colleagues to be just as wise to the risks of sharing too much information.
Finally, take care when you sell things online.
Source: Graham Cluley
