I began noticing some disturbing trends going on pertaining to my Facebook account last year or so.

The first of which was excessive friend requests from individuals I did not know and whom I suspected weren’t real people’s profiles to begin with.

Many of these “friend” requests had dubiously shallow profile pages constructed just recently (as in a few weeks or months ago) with scarce information about the individual. Some had clues and links pointing to Eastern Europe or Russian origin (which is by the way where a great majority of all world hacking originates from outside of China).

Another clue was the profile picture seemed to always be of a young, attractive woman in a pose was not quite professional (translation – lots of unnecessary cleavage).

A few said they knew “so-and-so” and when I asked “so-and-so” he or she would say “No. I have no idea who that person is”. So these phantom profiles, phishing for data have been penetrating many of my friends profiles. Including those who head up large companies and have a lot to lose to Facebook hacking.

Here are some tips to look for when pruning the weeds in your “friends” garden:

• Young attractive profile with cleavage (who normally would not be friend a 60 or 70 year old!)

• Scant information on the profile page which appears hastily constructed

• Unwillingness to identify themselves when you ask (avoiding replying to private messages asking for more information)

• Clues connecting the profile to Eastern Europe, Russia or Asia or India

• Excessive “liking” of your posts and photos (which reveals they are digging through your material --- odd behavior for someone that doesn’t know you)

• Piggybacking from another trusted friend – except that friend has no knowledge of the questionable individual

 More tips

• Never post ancestry, parental photos, or information about your mother’s maiden name, parents place of birth (a distant relative doing research on my ancestry did just that and I immediately removed and deleted all the posts from my time line and wall)

• Information about your dog, dog’s name, your place of birth, first car, etc.

Most secure sites require one of the above bits of information to change your password.

A mother’s maiden name, parents city of birth, first dog’s name, are all common “questions” that banks, accounts require to allow you permission to change a password. Keeping any of such information on Facebook, even set so that only your “friends” can view it (again – are you really sure these people are your friends??) is a big mistake and a ticking identity theft time bomb in the making.

A good friend of mine (from college) who is also a lawyer – had his entire Facebook account hacked by connecting the dots of clues cultivated from his own wall and profile page. He privately told me thankfully, his credit cards and bank accounts are okay – but the person managed to wrestle the entire FB account from him – and he’s a smart lawyer whom I’ve known for 25 years!

BE CAREFUL of what YOU POST!

Go through your friend list TODAY and remove anyone you don’t really know – Trust me – they are NOT your friends and I almost guarantee you have people cyber stalking you without your knowledge!

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BIOGRAPHY

About Frank G. Risalvato

Within two years after bidding farewell to the corporate world in 1987, Frank Risalvato was earning $21,000 average fees with multiple hires juggled monthly. In 1991 he woke up in the middle of the night thinking “enough” and founded www.iresinc.com the search firm he continues to operate today and which has undergone various transformations during the years.  

Today his fees are often double that of his earlier years while working less than he ever has each week. His neighbors probably think he’s an unemployed bum because he’s never seen commuting or “having a real job” and drives mainly for pleasure. He often generates six figures of gross recruiting fees in one single month relying on a no more than himself and his partner supplemented by outsourced assistance only when necessary. Frank’s FREE “Audio Download” page provides more free recruiter training content than what many charge thousands of dollars to hear. All of the content is real, recorded, daily dialogues. There are also full version seminar and webinars archived on www.searchwizardry.com  which is all free.  

His “Maximizing Search Firm Success” recruiting training book is the first ever published for the purpose of educating clients on the proper business protocol and etiquette of working with contingency recruiters. It’s dry humor is something every client should be required to read. He’s happy to help answer your questions and is probably sitting at his desk in shorts when you call him at 704 243-2110 and fris@iresinc.com">fris@iresinc.com

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