Be Cautious Using Personal Information on MySpace

As you would with any online community, be cautious using personal information on MySpace when cultivating your friendships.

Although the vast majority of people who use MySpace are simply looking to make new friends, or find some long lost acquaintance; there is always a small percentage of users who are unscrupulous and have malicious intents.

Although MySpace makes an honest attempt to enforce their terms of service and stop malicious behavior in the community, it can be a difficult task to achieve on the Internet.

The Internet allows everyone online a certain degree of anonymity, that allows some unscrupulous individuals to disguise their true identity and convince other MySpace members they are someone who they are really not.

Identity theft is a relatively common scenario which can occur on the Internet. Unscrupulous individuals can obtain enough personal information to co opt the identity of another individual and obtaining information such as a personal street address which can enable them to do physical harm to another MySpace member.

Be cautious using personal information on MySpace. Make sure that your private information is kept private while you are online. Specific information that can be used to hurt you, can include any of the following, or combination thereof.

• Your full name
• Your place of birth
• The name of your high school or college and date of graduation
• Your social security number
• Your credit card numbers
• Bank account numbers
• The names of your children and their dates of birth
• Your telephone number

You may think that some of this information seems harmless, but it's important to remember criminals can use public domain resources such as newspapers, or even library books to get more information about you.

Developing contacts on MySpace is necessary to promote your business and personal associations however, be cautious using personal information on MySpace.