Scams

Scams

by Mike Masnick




Using Social Networks To Support Your Fake Identity

from the royalty-may-have-been-pushing-it dept

We've now had a few different stories of kids being caught in criminal activity due to posting info about it to a social network profile or blog -- but it looks like some criminals are trying to use these tools to cover up their tracks. Some high school student journalists in Minnesota tried to write up a story about a 17-year-old prospective student, who claimed he was British royalty (might have been pushing it...). They found a page in MySpace that he had created to support his story -- but also a page the government had created for the (actually) 22-year-old as a registered sex offender. Generally speaking, if you're trying to not call attention to yourself, you should probably not pretend you're royalty. Still, it makes you wonder what sort of checks the school puts in place to keep people like this guy out.

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