Users of social networking sites have been warned that they are at risks from ID thieves if they reveal too much information about their lives.
Anti-virus firm demonstrated the problem by setting up a fake entry on popular social networking site Facebook. The company invented a profile page for "Freddi Staur" with minimal information about himself and sent 200 friend requests to random people on the site to see how many would respond to a stranger and what personal information could be teased out of respondents.
The experiment revealed that 87 people responded to requests by a stranger (albeit one that used a picture of a cute frog toy as a profile picture) and 82 of those people divulged personal information about themselves. Another 72 per cent of the 200 revealed one or more email addresses and 84 per cent listed a full date of birth. It also discovered that 78 per cent listed their current address or location and 23 per cent gave out their current telephone number.
For the majority of cases, the experiment was able to gain access to photos of friends and family, as well as users disclosing the names of spouses and even putting complete CVs online. One respondent even divulged his mother's maiden name - this information is often used by websites in order to retrieve account details.
"What's worrying is how easy it was for Freddi to go about his business. He now has enough information to create phishing emails or malware specifically targeted at individual users or businesses, to guess users' passwords, impersonate them or even stalk them," said Graham Cluley, senior technology consultant at Sophos.
"Most people wouldn't give out their details to a stranger in the street, or even respond to a spam email, yet several of the users Freddi contacted went so far as to make him one of their 'top friends'."
Cluley said that people need to realise that this is still unsolicited communication, despite it occurring within Facebook, and users must employ the same basic precautions - such as not responding in any way - "to prevent exposure to wrongdoers."
