Facebook and other social networks are great tools for meeting new people and catching up with old friends.
These networks can also become pretty effective tools for “phishing” if you don’t know how they work.
41-year old Dana Thornton faces an 18-month prison sentence if convicted for fourth-degree identity theft. She set up a Facebook page to appear written by her ex-boyfriend who happens to be a police detective. She then used his private details and photographs to make posts and comments look more authentic.
Whether or not Thornton will be charged depends on the courts, as New Jersey laws do not directly address identity theft on social networking sites.
The more dangerous issue, however, is the risks posed to a person’s reputation and possible misuse of credit information that will damage his/her credit ratings.
A person’s reputation can so easily be sunk by a few malicious posts and comments, while a fraudster can obtain private information from other people by posing as someone they know.
This is why it is important for people to check whether they have “doppelgangers” in social networks and promptly have them taken down as soon as possible.
After all, people can do a lot of harm with a jacked Facebook account that has a simple photo of your face in it.