Identity Thieves Attack Popular Childrens Website Neopets

As reported by FoxNews, Neopets, owned by Viacom, and
boasting 25 million users, has been hit by Internet pirates, according
to Christopher Boyd, director of FaceTime Communications, an Internet
security company.

The story reports that the scam targets children ages 8 -12, which
reflects nearly half the players of the game who are looking for a
"magic paintbrush". The magic paintbrush allows kids to change their
pets' colors. For those of you that are like our family, and don't have
children playing this game, Neopets allows users to interact with one
another while "adopting" cyber pets and earning points to purchase items
for them.

Here's how the trap is set: members are sent an e-mail or private
message on the Neopet bulletin board telling them about a secret
website that holds the magic paintbrush. When the child browses the
third-party website, he or she is not downloading and installing a
magic paintbrush, but malware: software created to damage or penetrate a
computer system.  The damage includes wreaking havoc with mom or dads
financial information and private data from the malware-infected PC.

According to Boyd, "The overall aim is hoping a child's parent does
(online) banking. The child is being used as a launch pad to get to the
parent".

So why would I blog about this?

1. You need to know.

2. You can do something to help protect your personal information.
Products like Norton
Identity Safe can help you.

3. Like the rest of life, nothing is ever full-proof. That
said, Yoursphere.com provides extra protection.

Yoursphere verifies identities.

Yoursphere eliminates anonymity.

No one participates in our community without us knowing and verifying
who they are.

We are in the unique position to be able to identify AND track AND
prosecute. 

We also don't operate on a scarcity model. We are upfront and open
with all of our features, so we eliminate the need to "cheat" and get
the super-secret features.

Enjoy our open, upfront and totally transparent community – that is,
once you are a identity-confirmed member.

Category: Privacy