ST. LOUIS, MO (KTVI - FOX2now.com)—
Social networking sites are growing in popularity and so are the number of accounts hacked by scammers. Contact 2 talked with a Webster Groves Entrepreneur faced with the nightmare. Kelly Ruesing owns a palates studio. She communicates with clients and family through her Facebook account. It was a perfect marketing tool for this young entrepreneur until last month's hacker attack."They took over my account and they started instant messaging all my friends currently online," said Ruesling.
The message sent to her friends was a desperate plea for cash. It would say, "hey I'm in London I just got mugged, my phone, my credit card was stolen, please send money so I can get home."
One of Ruesing's friends who lives out of state got that message and wired $1000 to the hacker. "I've had my identity stolen, somebody's impersonated me, and committed fraud against my friend, but at the same time one of my friend's rushed to my aid," added Ruesling. She realized the hacker hit thirty minutes after the account was compromised. Facebook sent an email asking that Kelly confirm the changes to her account. The hacker also set up a bogus Yahoo account using her name.
Ruesling thinks Facebook should bear more responsibility. On the other hand, Chris Thetford of the Better Business Bureau reminds consumers to check out the warnings on the Facebook website. "They do list those sorts of things on Facebook to let people know of the potential problems within the social networking group. So people should familiarize themselves with that," said Thetford.
That raises the question, who's policing the internet? Kelly quickly learned its not local law enforcement. "I asked the police this morning, he said don't call us, unless you know where its originating from there is nothing we can do," Ruesling said.
The BBB's Thetford says consumers have to take the good and the bad with social networking sites. "If it's a great place to bring people together for legitimate conversations, consumers need to understand that it is possible for people to take advantage of that as well."
Kelly isn't sure she'll keep the new account set up for her by Facebook. "At first I thought it was real convenient that you can set up an account and you're up and running, but now I'm thinking, maybe there needs to be a waiting period to have this information confirmed." Ruesing's advice for other Facebook users: if you get an instant message to help a friend be sure to ask the person a very specific question that only a friend or relative would be able to answer.
