Only add friends you know, says help centre
17 Jan 2010 (The Star)

PETALING JAYA: CyberSecurity Malaysia chief executive officer Lt Col (Rtd) Husin Jazri has advised Facebook users to never approve a "friend request" unless they know who the person is.

He said a total of 401 cases of criminal activities involving Facebook were reported to the Cyber999 Help Centre last year, with 62% related to harassment, 22% for hacked or compromised accounts and 5% related to identity fraud.

"Only share photographs, videos and information that you want to make public as there is a good chance that it will spread beyond your control," he said, adding that users should customise their privacy settings so that only "real friends" could access their information.

Husin called on parents to monitor their childrens' Facebook accounts.

"Talk to them about what should and should not be posted online and encourage them to report messages that make them uncomfortable," he said, adding that users who faced online threats and incidents could contact them at cyber999@cybersecurity.my.

Despite numerous reports of fraud and scams on Facebook, Malaysians are still naive and keep making the same mistakes.

MCA Public Services and Complaints Department head Datuk Michael Chong said people should realise the dangers of revealing too much personal information on the site.

He said they had received many complaints from young women whose reputations were tainted by culprits who hacked into their accounts and stole their private photographs.