Freshers Beware of The Facebook Fraudsters

This article was originally written for my University's newspaper but they ran out of space and it couldn't be submitted. I thought instead of wasting it, it would be a good idea to add it to my blog for the benefit of freshers. Enjoy!

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Coming to University for the first time can be an incredibly daunting experience. There is so much going on around you - names to remember, fancy dress outfits to buy and god know’s what else - that you begin to forget the important things, like security.

Before I’d even arrived at University, it seemed everybody was adding as many fellow first years from Uni as possible, so you could discuss online about the freshers events you wanted to go to, how many pots and pans you were bringing, and if you were nervous, scared or excited. Most students can probably relate to this, knowing that for the majority of the time, you will never end up meeting half of these people face to face. 

But in the midst of a Facebook-friend-adding frenzy, it is vital to be wary about how much personal information you share on your facebook profile. Internet scams can hit students like a bomb, especially during freshers week, and social networking is an extremely easy way to gain access to bank accounts, student finance accounts and more.

The Student Loans Company recently conducted a study on 1100 university applicants from across England, investigating how much information they share on their profiles, and their feelings towards Facebook-exclusive friendships (i.e. people you only know through Facebook).

The study found that 56% of freshers who about to begin University this year will add most of the new people they meet as their friend on Facebook, while a third would give their phone number to most other students at the same Uni as them. It was also uncovered that the majority had only met 51% of their Facebook friends; despite the fact they had included several important and personal details to their profile for all their “friends” to see. In addition, males were found to be at a higher risk of student finance fraud than females, because they are more likely to accept anyone as a friend and make their profile visible to the public.

More than half of the students interviewed had displayed their relationship status and date of birth to their profile, while 41% shared their email address and 14% included their phone number. It is these types of info which can be used to a fraudster’s advantage, so it is certainly worth removing these details off your Facebook page, particularly during the first year of Uni.

Fraud manager at The Student Loans Company, Heather Laing, commented that freshers students are more vulnerable to ‘phishing’ operations because they are often managing their finances for the first time. The scams tend to work using the details they can easily find on most facebook profiles. They will then pose as The Student Loans Company to attain more details, before eventually gaining access to your money. While loan phishing and scamming is monitored very closely, it is still a big threat to all first year students, usually targeted at the three installment dates for student loans – September, January and April.

It’s extremely important to remember that you will never be asked by The Student Loans Company to update or verify your bank details, date of birth, account numbers or passwords. You will never be asked to provide combinations (e.g. your reference number and your password) on the same screen. You will never be given a choice of a secret question – only the question you gave an answer to when you first applied.

Here are some top tips to staying safe:

• Create a strong password with mixed letters, numbers and symbols for your online accounts and ensure to update passwords regularly. Avoid using the same password for different websites.
• Beware of how much information you include in your profile. Addresses, mobile numbers, dates of birth and email addresses are all ways of gaining access to your important accounts, so limit how much you post about yourself.
• Beware of who you friend. 'Phishers' can easily take personal information from your Facebook page and social bots can use friend requests to hack your network.
• Stay updated with your social network’s security and privacy settings. Sometimes when a website changes its privacy policy, your profile can become more exposed to the public than it had been previously.

Inspired by an article in The Guardian - http://www.guardian.co.uk/education/2012/sep/17/freshers-students