How This Man Stole $US57,000 From His Neighbours Using Facebook

If Facebook fraudster Iain Wood has taught us anything, it’s to distrust thy neighbour. Because sometimes thy neighbour stalks you on Facebook, steals your mail, then uses your personal information to rob you.

Over the span of two years, Wood stole a total of $US57,000 from his neighbours in New Castle, England, to feed his nasty gambling habit. Was he some sort of masterful Facebook hacker? A Spam King in thief form? No, he was just a guy who ran a carpet-fitting business and happened to be good at uncovering information.

Wood spent 18 hours a day collecting personal details about his neighbours in conversation, through Facebook and Friends Reunited, and by stealing mail. He would subsequently sign onto the online bank accounts of his victims, claim he couldn’t remember the password, then correctly answer questions related to mothers’ maiden names and birthdays. To get cash, Wood changed the address of his victims’ accounts and withdrew money with the replacement cards he received in the mail. He finally got caught after transferring $US2500 directly to his own account.

All pretty horrible and heartless on Wood’s part. But the worst thing about his crime is how any guy like him — a slimy neighbour with nothing better to do but search for your info all day — can access your data. Does this mean we shouldn’t friend our neighbours on Facebook? What if they make us cookies? What if the cookies are delicious?

Being suspicious and secretive with our acquaintances probably won’t help too much. It’s the system that needs a change. The average generic security question — where you went to high school, your favourite movie — isn’t hard to answer. In fact, it’s probably sitting on your Facebook for everyone to see. We can’t continue allowing simple passwords and easy security questions to be the only barriers between our bank accounts and potential thieves. We need a new way to prove our identities online. Because no one should be able to access your bank account that easily. Especially not some jerk who’s looking for a quick way to score some cash.

[The Telegraph via ZDNet]


The Cheapest NBN 50 Plans

It’s the most popular NBN speed in Australia for a reason. Here are the cheapest plans available.

At Gizmodo, we independently select and write about stuff we love and think you'll like too. We have affiliate and advertising partnerships, which means we may collect a share of sales or other compensation from the links on this page. BTW – prices are accurate and items in stock at the time of posting.