The Oldest Trick in the Book

My poor old mother fell for one of the oldest scams there is and I am shocked that she did so.  She has always struck me as a person who was so with it.  As she has aged, and she is over 80 now, she has gotten increasingly frail.  It is a shame to see a woman who was once so vibrant and capable begin to slide into the image I have of an old, frail, woman, tottering along with a cane.

She emailed me yesterday in response to an email I sent her about an event we are going to.  I emailed her because I thought she could print out the email rather than talk to her on the phone and risk her forgetting the details.  It appears that a person, or persons, stalked her on FaceBook and called claiming to be her grandson (not my son but my brother’s) saying that he was in New York City and had been in an accident.  He didn’t want her to call his parents but to wire money to him right away.  She said she questioned him about the sound of his voice but he claimed that a broken nose had changed it.  She wired the money he asked for and then sent more the following day when the person called back to say the hospital needed additional funds.  She apparently has contacted the authorities and they are on the case and apparently have found the suspects.  However, she is unsure if she is going to recover anything.

I told her that for the future, she needs to have a password in place with her grandsons.  If someone calls again, she is to ask them the password and if they don’t know it, or give the wrong one, she is to go to the police immediately.  With FaceBook, these kinds of scams are relatively easy.  One simply searches for women over the age of 70 and then looks at their accounts or people they know until they find a young family member they can claim to be. Then it is a simple cross reference with the phone directory to find the phone number and they are set. 

FaceBook is great, but there are risks.  This situation points to another reason why you really need to review your security settings to make sure that others cannot view anything about you unless they are friends.  Even with that you should not put any of your personal information on your profile unless you are sure there is no way someone can use it against you.  You need to be responsible for your own safety and constantly vigilant in this day and age when your life is an open book in the ether.

Life and Death

There are a few things that elicit multiple responses on Facebook; birthdays and death notices.  I find that really interesting.  When my father died, I posted a tribute to him – the same one I posted here – and there were so many responses and sympathies from many, many people I am connected with.  It gave me great comfort that people actually cared.  When my cat died on Saturday, the same thing happened, which kind of surprised me because I always get the impression that grieving for the loss of a pet is considered pretty corny.  But people surprise me constantly and again I got a whole lot of sympathy postings. 

Birthday greeting abound, but death notices?  Is Facebook the new place to put an obituary?  In many respects it is much more personal and much more meaningful to have something there where your Faceook friends can connect with you and share your sorrow. To me it felt comforting, strangely enough, to know that others were sympathetic to what was going on in my life – the good and the bad. 

I often don’t post my statuses sharing every move I make as I really don’t think that others care all that much.  I usually post a simple motivational quote that I find meaningful to me and which I hope will spark some thought and maybe some response but I am not really looking for it. I also post updates to my garden because frankly it is kind of my bragging arena.  I am proud of the results of my garden and what to share that aspect of my life. I enjoy reading what others post with the exception of a few of my friends’ kids who have friended me for some strange reason.  They use the F word too much in my opinion and frankly I hide most of them because I find it offensive. But sharing one’s life from all areas and expanding ones personal network is exactly what Social Media is all about, even in life and death.

Facebook

If you ask me, Facebook is a huge sociological experiment to see just how far people will go. We are all social creatures and I think despite some people who want to be alone, we all crave human interaction – face time if you will. As such, the notion of letting everyone know what you are doing each second of the day via Facebook or Twitter is an outcome of that need.

I think I have heard everything that Facebook can be used for. Today I read a report of a man in Utah who held a woman hostage and posted updates to his friends about the incident while it was happening. Many of them pleaded with him to stop but some even told him were the police were. That later group? They may be charged with obstruction. I am sure more is to come on that part of the case. A whole new area of law is being created because of this technology.

Facebook is a great networking tool. It’s fun, interactive, and can provide lots of entertainment. It’s been used to find a lost pig, brag about your exploits legal and otherwise, get a girl rescued who fell in a storm-drain, and now chronicle a crime in progress. I am sure that it has been used to describe, blow by blow (pun fully intended), sexual acts in progress. I am not sure what message this says about society, but I think it getting a little out of hand. I mean, really. I think that the young people who have grown up with this in-your-face technology would make for a great sociological study on the effects of this technology and how it affects one’s self worth. Facebook is putting our lives out there if you decide to buy into it.

Facebook and Privacy

My mother is worse than a pit bull and she tends to get on a topic and not let go.  Her latest rant is about Facebook.  She may have a point on this one, though because she is convinced that Facebook is taking away our privacy.

My mother’s page was set up by a friend of hers.  She really doesn’t do anything with it except occasionally go in there and look at some pictures posted by her friends.  She doesn’t play games, or stalk people, or post anything.  She is really quite computer illiterate content to use the computer for email, word processing, photo printing, and the occasional Internet search. 

If you really think about it Facebook really has invaded our lives, and there have been several privacy issues since its inception.   In 2007 some code was accidently made public and caused user information to be available to people other than who they intended it to.  In 2009 Facebook launched a system that sent information about users to a game site, which prompted concern because the script allowed movements a user made to be public.  The news feed and mini-news feeds, which members can opt out of, display everyone’s information on their friend’s pages and very few members opt out, or know how.  Photos that friends tag you in are shown without your consent even though you can un-tag yourself.  But isn’t that what Facebook is all about?

But I think that she is particularly infuriated with the fact that every webpage she visits has a Facebook presence on it. Everywhere you go there is something to do with Facebook and I think she is frustrated by that. I try to tell her that if people want, they can click the like button and share that page with their friends so that the company or information gets exposure.  The point is that people what their information to be spread.  That’s how they get business.  You don’t have to click the like button if you don’t want to.  No one is forcing you to do anything.

The main concern about Facebook is that it could be used as surveillance and data mining. They did state in their privacy policy at once point that they may use information from other sources in your profiles.  In addition, Mr. Zuckerberg has been known to meet with the FBI to assist in investigations using the company’s databases, which are far greater than the government because of the information in them.  We have all heard stories about prospective employers or recruiting colleges using Facebook to gain information about people in advance of their potential inclusion into their organization.  Furthermore, parents have to guide their children into safe computer usage and help prevent others from getting information about their children.  Children under 18 are not supposed to have Facebook pages anyway, but I am sure that many do anyway.

But the bottom line is that Facebook is really what people make of it.  If you want your information out there, it will be out there and if you don’t, then don’t post things about yourself.  Don’t allow drunken posts in the middle of the night that show your party side, or post blog entries and news feeds about your latest escapade that could be damaging to your reputation.  In this modern world where everything is potentially out there for everyone to see, you have to monitor your conduct.