Crimes on social media

Good content always has an objective; its created with intent. It therefore carries triggers to
action.
The best way to define social media is to break it down. Media is an instrument on
communication, like a newspaper or a radio, so social media would be a social instrument of
communication. Social Media was created by the purpose of having a common interest and
brining those people of different communities together to share their interest on a platform,
Social networking has encouraged new ways to communicate and share information. Such
Web sites are used by millions of people every day.
Although having different social media sites the usage may also differ in many contrasting
ways,
It being Web- based provides a variety of ways for users to interact, such as e-mail and
instant messaging services which enables users to provide them with their basic information
which they share and let people excess their accounts .Many of the sites have communities or
subgroups that may be based on a particular interest.

Here are some examples of social media websites:

Social Bookmarking: (Del.icio.us, Blinklist, Simpy) Interact by tagging websites and
searching through websites bookmarked by other people.
Social News: (Digg, Propeller, Reddit) Interact by voting for articles and commenting on
them.
Social Networking :(Facebook, Hi5, Last.FM) Interact by adding friends, commenting on
profiles, joining groups and having discussions.
Social Photo and Video Sharing: (YouTube, Flickr) Interact by sharing photos orvideos and
commenting on user submissions.
Wikis. (Wikipedia, Wikia) Interact by adding articles and editing existing articles.1

1 Article by Daneial Nations

Moreover, with the population growth and the prevailing use of these sites also has a
dangerous side

towards them. Some of the problems which occur while using the social

networking sites are mainly:

1. Encouraging poor grammar, usage, and spelling
2. Allowing the spread of misinformation that may be perceived as fact even in light of
evidence to the contrary
3.Exposing children to online predators
4. Creating a culture in which a single mistake such as a racy picture or poorly thought-out
comment can cause irreparable harm to your reputation
5.Decreasing productivity as workers habitually check social networking sites while they
should be working.
6.Providing information that increases the risk of identity theft.
7.Creating a platform for cyber bullying 2
These are the various above mentioned problems which are faced due to

REVIEW OF LITERATURE
Some Popular Social Networking Sites3
Name
Bebo

Description/Focus
General

Registration
Open to people 13 and

Bigadda

Indian Social

older
Open to people 16 and

Classmates.com

Networking Site.
School, college, work

older
Open to people 18 and

Facebook

and the military

General.

older
Open to people 13 and

Movies

older
Open to people 13 and

Photo sharing,

older
Open to people 13 and

Flixster
Flickr

2 Negative Impact of Social Networking SitesSocial Media and Isolation SOURCE

By Karen Frazier

3 Some Popular Social Networking Sites

commenting,

older

photogra-phy related
networking,
Google Buzz
Hi5

worldwide
General
General. Popular in

Open
Open to people 13 and

India, Portugal,

older. No children

Mongolia, Thailand,

allowed

Romania, Jamaica,
Central Africa and
Latin America. Not
LinkedIn

MouthShut.com

popular in the USA.

Business and

Open to people 18 and

professional

older

networking
Social Network, social

Open

media, consumer
My Opera

reviews
Blogging, mobile

Open

blogging, sharing
photos, connecting
MySpace

with friends. Global

General. HTML based

Open to ages 13 and

Netlog

site.
General. Popular in

up.
Open to people 13 and

Europe, Turkey, the

older

Arab World and

Canada's Qubec
prov-ince. Formerly
known as Facebox and
Orkut

Redbox.
General. Owned by

Open to people 18 and

Google Inc. Popular in

older, (Google login)

Brazil and
Tagged

decreasingly, in India.
General. Subject to

Open

quite some controversy about its e-mail

marketing and privacy
Twitter

policy
General. Micro-

Open

blogging, RSS,
WAYN

updates
Travel and lifestyle

Open to people 18 and

older

These are some popular sites depicting the various social media sites giving the general view
and age limit which are required to be part of these sites.

INDIAN YOUTH ABOUT THE SOCIAL NETWORKING SITES

The Indian youth have immediately taken to social net-working sites, much in the same way
they took up internet as a technology. Harnessing the power of Internet, about 75 percent of
India's youth prefers social media over phone calls to communicate, with more students using
the Net for school-related tasks. Tata Consultancy Services (TCS) Gen-Y survey 2012-13,
revealed that today's youth are collaborating through social networking tools and building
virtual communities aided by affordable bandwidth and smart device. The exhaustive study
by India's largest software services exporter covered nearly 17,500 high-school students
across 14 Indian cities and claimed to have conducted the first such survey in India.4 It was
seen even by the other surveys that "Seventy four (74) percent of use Facebook the most to
communicate while 54 percent conceded to use SMS, both significantly higher than the
number of students who said they use voice calls (44 percent) for the same purpose," it
added. It also has been revealed that the social networks like Facebook, Twitter are the
primary and clear favourites among today's youth to connect with their peers with 92 percent
of the respondents preferring Facebook.
CRIMES ON SOCIAL MEDIA
1. Burglary
4 Tcs survey

With the rise of social media, burglars have easier access to specific information regarding
homeowners than ever before. Twitter and Facebook are most prone sites to such happenings
as they let people share their personal belongings so openly on these sites that all the personal
stuff is easily accessible to almost to everyone. The basic where about of any individual are
present on these sites which lets these burglars access easily. According to the survey, a thief
steals an average of 487 from a home on a single visit and this all happened because of the
persons posting constant updates about himself 5. Other social networking applications, such
as foursquare and Go walla are primarily location-based networks which also add to this tally.
2. Social Engineering & Phishing
Social engineering which refers to refers to the social manipulation of large groups of people
to meet political or economic ends. This is a type of confidence trick for the purpose of
information gathering, fraud, or computer system access. It differs from traditional cons in
that often the attack is often a mere step in a more complex fraud6
Phishing is the act of attempting to acquire information such as usernames, passwords, and
credit card details (and sometimes, indirectly, money) by masquerading as a trustworthy
entity in an electronic communication. Phishing is an example of social engineering
techniques used to deceive users, and exploits the poor usability of current web security
technologies.7
3. Malware
Malware related scams involving social networking sites are seen quite frequently these days.
Many incidents have come to the forefront in the last few months, and the problem seem
rising every day. This proves that how malware writers focus on the web as their primary
target, and it has shown the vulnerability of social networking sites as well. This is the reason
why sites like Twitter and Facebook have taken steps to enhance their security from explicit
links and pop-ups. Some percentages, Facebook: 60% MySpace: 18%. Twitter: 17%
LinkedIn: 4% 8

5 US daily
6 Info.tec articles (security)
7 Wikipedia

4. Identity Theft
Recent research reveals that identity theft affects millions of people a year, costing victims
countless hours and money in identity recovery and repair. It is actually a combination of
factors like lack of consumer knowledge regarding protecting your identity online, growing
comfort with, and trust in, social platform providers, the need for social platforms to generate
revenue, and a lack of standards or policing of these standards. Although this issue is not yet
in the mainstream consciousness, it likely will be sooner rather than later.9 In 2010, statistics
of cyberstalking victimization compiled by Who showed that harassment most often
originated through emails, comprising 34% of cases followed by Facebook with 16.5%. Of
all cases reported, 79% escalated in some way. The top two ways in which incidents escalated
were through email (28%) and Facebook (15%). Threats of offline violence occurred in 25%
of cases.10
5. Cyberstalking
According to The National Center for Victims of Crime, "cyber stalking" is threatening
communication or unwanted advances directed at another person using the Internet and other
forms of online and computer communications.11It uses the Internet to determine the location
of a desired victim using any available resource. Cyber stalkers meet their victims in a variety
of ways. Frequently, the cyber stalker and the victim have had a prior relationship (either
online or in real life) and the cyber stalking begins after the relationship has ended. In some
cases, however, cyber stalking is committed by strangers who have obtained a victim's
personal information on the Internet.

8 Press office articles

9 Article by Kent Lewis EO Portland
10 Working to Halt Online Abuse. (2009). 2009 Cyber Stalking Statistics
11 Article by Commonwealth of Massachusetts.

CASE STUDIES
Case 1: First conviction in India12
A complaint was filed in by Sony India Private Ltd, which runs a website called sonysambandh.com, targeting Non Resident Indians. The website enables NRIs to send Sony
products to their friends and relatives in India after they pay for it online. The company
undertakes to deliver the products to the concerned recipients. In May 2002, someone logged
onto the website under the identity of Barbara Campa and ordered a Sony Colour Television
set and a cordless head phone. A lady gave her credit card number for payment and requested
that the products be delivered
to Arif Azim in Noida. The payment was duly cleared by the credit card agency and the
transaction processed. After following the relevant procedures of due diligence and checking,
the company delivered the items to Arif Azim.
At the time of delivery, the company took digital photographs showing the delivery being
accepted by Arif Azim.
The transaction closed at that, but after one and a half months the credit card agency
informed the company that this was an unauthorized transaction as the real owner had denied
having made the purchase. The company lodged a complaint for online cheating at the
Central Bureau of Investigation which registered a case under Section 418, 419 and 420 of
the Indian Penal Code. The matter was investigated into and Arif Azim was arrested.
Investigations
revealed that Arif Azim, while working at a call centre in Noida gained access to the credit
card number of an American national which he misused on the companys site.
The CBI recovered the colour television and the cordless head phone. The accused admitted
his guilt and the court of Shri Gulshan Kumar Metropolitan Magistrate, New Delhi, convicted
Arif Azim under Section 418, 419 and 420 of the Indian Penal Code this being the first
time that a cyber crime has been convicted. The court, however, felt that as the accused was a
young boy of 24 years and a first-time convict, a lenient view needed to be taken. The court
therefore released the accused on probation for one year.
12Following case studies on Cyber Crime were provided by Dr. Uma Somayajula, an
eminent IT Security professional and DSCI member

Case-2: First juvenile accused in a cyber crime case.

In April 2001 a person from New Delhi complained to the crime branch regarding the
website. Amazing.com, he claimed, carried vulgar remarks about his daughter and a few of
her classmates. During the inquiry, print-outs of the site were taken and proceedings initiated.
After investigation a student of Class 11 and classmate of the girl was
arrested.
The juvenile board in Nov 2003 refused to discharge the boy accused of creating a website
with vulgar remarks about his classmate. The accuseds advocate had sought that his client be
discharged on the ground that he was not in a stable state of mind. Seeking discharge, the
advocate further said that the trial has been pending for about two years.
While rejecting the accuseds application, metropolitan magistrate Santosh Snehi Mann said:
The mental condition under which the juvenile came into conflict with the law shall be taken
into consideration during the final order. Mann, however, dropped the sections of Indecent
Representation of Women (Prohibition) Act. The accused would face trial under the
Information Technology Act and for intending to outrage the modesty of a woman. She held
the inquiry could not be closed on technical ground, especially when the allegations were not
denied by the accused.
Case 3: First case convicted under Information Technology Act 2000 of India.
The case related to posting of obscene, defamatory and annoying message about a divorcee
woman in the yahoo message group. E-Mails were also forwarded to the victim for
information by the accused through a false e-mail account opened by him in the name of the
victim. The posting of the message resulted in annoying phone calls to the lady in the belief
that she was soliciting.
Based on a complaint made by the victim in February 2004, the Police traced the accused to
Mumbai and arrested him within the next few days. The accused was a known family friend
of the victim and was reportedly interested in marrying her. She however married another
person. This marriage later ended in divorce and the accused started contacting her once
again. On her reluctance to marry him, the accused took up the harassment through the
Internet.
On 24-3-2004 Charge Sheet was filed u/s 67 of IT Act 2000, 469 and 509 IPC before The
Honble Addl. CMM Egmore by citing 18 witnesses and 34 documents and material objects.

The same was taken on file in C.C.NO.4680/2004. On the prosecution side 12 witnesses
were examined and entire documents were marked.
The Defence argued that the offending mails would have been given either by ex-husband of
the complainant or the complainant her self to implicate the accused as accused alleged to
have turned down the request of the complainant
to marry her. Further the Defence counsel argued that some of the documentary evidence
was not sustainable under Section 65 B of the Indian Evidence Act. However, the court
based on the expert witness of Naavi and other evidence produced including the witness of
the Cyber Cafe owners came to the conclusion that the crime was conclusively proved.
The court has also held that because of the meticulous investigation carried on by the IO, the
origination of the obscene message was traced out and the real culprit has been brought
before the court of law. In this case Sri S. Kothandaraman, Special Public Prosecutor
appointed by the Government conducted the case. Honourable Sri.Arulraj, Additional Chief
Metropolitan Magistrate, Egmore, delivered the judgement on 5-11-04 as follows:
The accused is found guilty of offences under section 469, 509 IPC and 67 of IT Act 2000
and the accused is convicted and is sentenced for the offence to undergo RI for 2 years under
469 IPC and to pay fine of Rs.500/-and for the offence u/s 509 IPC sentenced to undergo 1
year Simple imprisonment and to pay fine of Rs.500/- and for the offence u/s 67 of IT Act
2000 to undergo RI for 2 years and to pay fine of Rs.4000/- All sentences to run
concurrently.
Case 4: Father & son convicted under IT act in Kerala.
The Additional District and Sessions Court here has upheld a lower courts verdict in the first
cyber case filed in the State sentencing a Pentecostal Church priest and his son to rigorous
imprisonment in 2006, Disposing of the appeal filed by the priest T.S. Balan and his son,
Aneesh Balan, against the order of the Chief Judicial Magistrate.
Additional District Judge T.U. Mathewkutty said it was time the government took effective
measures to check the growing trend of cyber crimes in the State.The court upheld the
magistrates order sentencing the two to three-year rigorous imprisonment and imposing a
fine of Rs. 25,000 under Section 67 of the information technology (IT) Act; awarding six
months rigorous imprisonment under Section 120(B) of the Indian Penal Code; and ordering

one year rigorous imprisonment and imposing a fine of Rs. 10,000 under Section 469 of the
code.
The court revoked the sentence under Section 66 of the IT Act. The cyber case dates back to
January-February 2002 and the priest and his son became the first to be convicted of
committing a cyber crime. The two were found guilty of morphing, web-hosting and emailing nude pictures of Pastor Abraham and his family. Balan had worked with the pastor
until he fell out with him and was shown the door by the latter. Balan joined the Sharon
Pentecostal Church later. The prosecution said the duo had morphed photographs of
Abraham, his son, Valsan Abraham, and daughter, Starla Luke, and e-mailed them from fake
mail IDs with captions. The morphed pictures were put on the web and the accused, who
edited a local magazine called The Defender, wrote about these photos in his publication.
Valsan received the pictures on the Internet and asked his father to file a complaint to the
police. A police party raided the house of Balan and his son at Perumbavoor and collected
evidences. The magistrates verdict came after a four-year trial, for which the court had to
procure a computer with Internet connection and accessories. The police had to secure the
services of a computer analyst too to piece together the evidences. Twenty-nine witnesses,
including the Internet service provider and Bharat Sanchar Nigam Ltd., had to depose before
the court.
Case 5: Well-known orthopedist in Chennai got life.
Dr. L Prakash stood convicted of manipulating his patients in various ways, forcing them to
commit sex acts on camera and posting the pictures and videos on the Internet. The 50-yearold doctor landed in the police net in December 2001 when a young man who had acted in
one of his porn films lodged a complaint with the police.
Apparently the doctor had promised the young man that the movie would be circulated only
in select circles abroad and had the shock of his life when he saw himself in a porn video
posted on the web.
Subsequent police investigations opened up a Pandora's box. Prakash and his younger
brother, settled in the US, had piled up close to one lakh shots and video footages, some real
and many morphed. They reportedly minted huge money in the porn business, it was stated.
Fast track court judge R.Radha, who convicted all the four in Feb 2008 , also imposed a fine
of Rs 1.27 lakh on Prakash, the main accused in the case, and Rs 2,500 each on his three

associates - Saravanan, Vijayan and Asir Gunasingh. The Judge while awarding life term to
Prakash observed that considering the gravity of the offences committed by the main accused,
maximum punishment under the Immoral Trafficking Act (life imprisonment) should be
given to him and no leniency should be shown. The Judge sentenced Prakash under the
Immoral Trafficking Act, IPC, Arms Act and Indecent Representation of Women (Prevention)
Act among others.
Case 6: Juvenile found guilty for sending threatening email.
A 16 year old student from Ahmadabad who threatened to blow up Andheri Railway station
in an email message was found guilty by the Juvenile court in Mumbai. A private news
channel received an email on 18 March 2008 claiming sender as Dawood Ibrahim gang
saying a bomb would be planted on an unspecified train to blow it up.
The case was registered in Andheri Police station under section 506 of IPC and transferred to
cyber crime investigation cell. During Investigation CCIC traced the cyber cafe from which
the email account was created and threatening email was sent. Cafe owner told police about
friends which had come that day to surf the net. Police Summoned them and found that the
system which was used to send email was accessed by only one customer. On 22nd March
08, police arrested the boy a Class XII science student who during interrogation said that he
sent the
email for fun of having his prank flashed as breaking news on television.
Separate cases now:
Three people held guilty in on line credit card scam
Customers credit card details were misused through online means for booking air-tickets.
These culprits were caught by the city Cyber Crime Investigation Cell in pune. It is found
that details misused were belonging to 100 people.
Mr. Parvesh Chauhan, ICICI Prudential Life Insurance officer had complained on behalf of
one of his customer. In this regard Mr. Sanjeet Mahavir Singh Lukkad, Dharmendra Bhika
Kale and Ahmead Sikandar Shaikh were arrested. Lukkad being employeed at a private
institution, Kale was his friend. Shaiklh was employed in one of the branches of State Bank
of India .

According to the information provided by the police, one of the customer received a SMS
based alert for purchasing of the ticket even when the credit card was being held by him.
Customer was alert and came to know something was fishy; he enquired and came to know
about the misuse. He contacted the Bank in this regards. Police observed involvement of
many Bank's in this reference.
The tickets were book through online means. Police requested for the log details and got the
information of the Private Institution. Investigation revealed that the details were obtained
from State Bank of India . Shaikh was working in the credit card department; due to this he
had access to credit card details of some customers. He gave that information to Kale. Kale in
return passed this information to his friend Lukkad. Using the information obtained from
Kale Lukkad booked tickets. He used to sell these tickets to customers and get money for the
same. He had given few tickets to various other institutions.
Cyber Cell head DCP Sunil Pulhari and PI Mohan Mohadikar A.P.I Kate were involved in
eight days of investigation and finally caught the culprits. In this regards various Banks have
been contacted; also four air-line industries were contacted. DCP Sunil Pulhari has requested
customers who have fallen in to this trap to inform police authorities on 2612-4452 or 26123346 if they have any problems.
SOME INDIAN CASE STUDIES13
NET NEUTRALITY
Last week, a legislation has been introduced in Senate and House of Representatives of US to
ban deals where web content companies could pay internet service providers to deliver their
traffic to users faster and more reliably. In US, Federal Communications Commission (FCC)
is collecting public comments on new Net Neutrality rules. The rules propose to prohibit
internet providers from blocking or slowing down access to web sites. It is required that
internet is a platform for free expression where the services can reach consumers based on
merit rather than based on a financial relationship with a broad band provider. For real
internet freedom, this is a basic requirement.
3 Internet cannot override privacy

13 http://www.cyber.law.harvard.edu/media/files/wpsupplement2005.pdf

In a recent judgement, Court of Justice of European Union has opined that a person has right
to instruct the internet search engines like google to keep certain personal information of
individuals as secret. The Hon. Court opined that to view all the details available on internet,
may be dangerous may a times, therfore, a person has the right to instruct the search engines
to keep certain personal information as secret, and not accessible. This ruling provides a level
of protection against invasion of privacy.
4 Unsafe Wi-Fi Zones Usually the internet is assessed through computer or laptop.
However, the use of internet through smart phones is increasing. Also, there are many
open/free Wi-Fi zones in malls, offices, hotels and other places. This may be accessed by
hackers and terrorists. By and large, such Wi-Fi zones are unsafe and it requires proper
security. This is because, many a times it may be difficult to trace the users since it is openly
used by anyone.
5 Bit Coin: Bitcoin was first coined by Santoshi Nakamoto, a Chinese, in 2009. In 2012, its
value was $1000. A Bitcoin is mined on a privately owned, specialized computing equipment
and passed around by a global network of computers. The transactions are traceable, but the
parties are not. In November, 2013, peoples Bank of China objected the use of Bitcoin and
told that it is not a recognized currency. Therefore, its value dropped tp $345. Asia's first
Bitcoin ATM was installed in Singapore in February, 2014. However, the regulators and
lawmakers have raised a concern that this is not a recognized currency, and be used for
fraudulent purposes.
6 Open Source Licensing: Open source licensing is resorted to by many sites. However this
has certain legal issues. Basically there can be an issue of copyright. Other relevant issues are
questions of enforceability on account of clash of local legislation and international
agreement. The rights of a programmer warranties and software patent also needs to detailed
study.
7 Cyber Jurisdiction: Internet creates virtual world. There are no demarcated boundaries
between the people who utilize the web. The utility extends to information, e-banking, ecommerce, communication etc. the technology is open to hacking, pornography, gambling,
identity-theft etc. This requires understanding of jurisdiction. Various principles have been
evolved to decide the jurisdiction. To mention (1) minimum contest test (2) personal
jurisdiction (3) long arm statutes. With reference to Indian situation section 75 of Information

Technology Act, 2000 contents the provisions regarding jurisdiction. Section 13(3), (4) and
(5) also deal with cause of action which is of significance in internet transactions. Jurisdiction
can also be decided on the basis of choice of law, location of server, defendants domicile,
and place of performance of contract, plaintiffs domicile and purposeful availment.
8 Andhra Pradesh Tax Case: Dubious tactics of a prominent businessman from Andhra
Pradesh was exposed after officials of the department got hold of computers used by the
accused person. The owner of a plastics firm was arrested and Rs 22 crore cash was
recovered from his house by sleuths of the Vigilance Department. They sought an explanation
from him regarding the unaccounted cash within 10 days. The accused person submitted
6,000 vouchers to prove the legitimacy of trade and thought his offence would go undetected
but after careful scrutiny of vouchers and contents of his computers it revealed that all of
them were made after the raids were conducted. It later revealed that the accused was
running five businesses under the guise of one company and used fake and computerised
vouchers to show sales records and save tax.
PARLIAMENT ATTACK CASE
Bureau of Police Research and Development at Hyderabad had handled some of the top
cyber cases, including analysing and retrieving information from the laptop recovered from
terrorist, who Parliament. The laptop which was seized from the two terrorists, who were
gunned down when Parliament was under siege on December 13 2001, was sent to Computer
Forensics Division of BPRD after computer experts at Delhi failed to trace much out of its
contents.
The laptop contained several evidences that confirmed of the two terrorists motives, namely
the sticker of the Ministry of Home that they had made on the laptop and pasted on their
ambassador car to gain entry into Parliament House and the the fake ID card that one of the
two terrorists was carrying with a Government of India emblem and seal. The emblems (of
the three lions) were carefully scanned and the seal was also craftly made along with
residential address of Jammu and Kashmir. But careful detection proved that it was all forged
and made on the laptop.
Baazee.com case: CEO of Baazee.com was arrested in December 2004 because a CD with
objectionable material was being sold on the website. The CD was also being sold in the
markets in Delhi. The Mumbai city police and the Delhi Police got into action. The CEO was

later released on bail. This opened up the question as to what kind of distinction do we draw
between Internet Service Provider and Content Provider. The burden rests on the accused that
he was the Service Provider and not the Content Provider. It also raises a lot of issues
regarding how the police should handle the cyber crime cases and a lot of education is
required.
PREVENTIONAL TIPS
Each social media site offers tips on how to use their service and still maintain a high level of
security. Listed below are their policies by following their security guidelines and adopt
their best practices.
Facebook: There is a comprehensive help page on Facebook where you can find details on
protecting your account against hacking and other security threats. Check it frequently to
make sure your practices and settings are up to date. CNET also offers practical advice such
as being sure to block your ex and carefully manage who has viewing access.
Foursquare: For a better understanding of who can see information associated with your
Foursquare account, visit the Help Center. This page explains methods for creating security
settings for every account scenario. Ensure your check-ins are safe and secure by utilizing
these five tips from CIO.
Instagram: If you have an Instagram account, read their official page for ways to keep your
account safe.
LinkedIn: Visit LinkedIn's Help Center for a wide range of account security articles. A few
of the topics covered on the page include methods for protecting your privacy, your identity
and your account. They also offer tips for dealing with phishing, spam and malware. If your
LinkedIn account is associated with a business, How Not to Have Your Account Hacked
provides ways to keep passwords safe even if several people have access to the account.
Pinterest: To keep your Pinterest account secure, you will need to access two main sections
on the site: privacy settings and account security. If your account has been hacked or placed
in a Safe mode by Pinterest, you will use the account security section to resolve the issue.
However, most likely you will only need to use the the privacy settings section. This is where
you control what others can view and the degree of personalization desired. Scams are one
issue the site has dealt with in the past.

Tumblr: If you use Tumblr, one of the best ways to improve security is to utilize the recently
implemented two-factor authentication. For all your settings, though, access the site's security
settings page. Here you can learn how to revoke third-party application permissions as well
as how to remove spam from your blog. For increased security, according to Entrepreneur
magazine, you may want to refrain from using free themes.
Twitter: Visit Twitter's Help Center to learn best practices for your Tweets or if you want to
know how to connect with or revoke third-party applications. Also visit this page to discover
methods for controlling account settings so you can get the level of security you want.
YouTube/Google+: If you have a YouTube and/or Google+ account, bookmark Google's
Keeping Your Account Secure page. This page is great source to learn about their two-step
verification process, malware and virus issues, general information about your account
settings and best practices for protecting your privacy and identity.
Mentioned below are some pracse which can be followed

Never, ever give out your social security number or drivers license numbers.

Consider unique user names and passwords for each profile.

Vary your passwords and change them regularly.

Dont give out your username and password to third parties (even if it helps you
connect to others and build your network).

Assuming you plan to be active in social media, minimize the use

of personal information on your profiles that may be used for password verification
or phishing attacks.

Avoid listing the following information publicly: date of birth, hometown, home
address, year of high school or college graduation, primary e-mail address.

Only invite people to your network that you know or have met, as opposed to friends
of friends and strangers.

For password security verification questions, us a password for all answers (rather
than the answer to the specific question, like What is your mothers maiden
name?).

When age-shifting to protect your real birthday, keep the date close; otherwise, you
may expose yourself to age discrimination.14

Watch where you post and what you say, as it can be used against you later.

Google yourself regularly and monitor your credit using the free annual report or
monthly monitoring services.

Don't trust that a message is really from who it says it's from. Hackers can break into
accounts and send messages that look like they're from your friends, but aren't.

To avoid giving away email addresses of your friends, do not allow social
networking services to scan your email address book.

Type the address of your social networking site directly into your browser or use
your personal bookmarks.

Be selective about who you accept as a friend on a social network.

Choose your social network carefully.

Assume that everything you put on a social networking site is permanent.

. Be careful about installing extras on your site.15

CONCLUSIONS
For better or worse, the Internet has become an integral part of life. Cyber crimes have
encored interaction through social net-working websites, On the negative side they have
made everyone using them more cautious and circumspect on the net, Interconnectivity has
spawned new breeds of crime, such as cyber stalking and phishing, causing new headaches
for law enforcement, who must remain a step ahead of todays tech-savvy criminals. But it is
really saddening to know that only our own bitter experiences have made us alert. We have
not learnt from others experiences or from whatever is portrayed in the media. There exist so
many other people who were affected by cyber criminals and who have undergone severe
mental agony. The number of alleged crimes are mostly related to Facebook or Twitter have
increased nearly eight-fold in four years. It is advised that the social media users have to
protect themselves from becoming a victim of an internet scam by being skeptical of any
information or people that appear suspicious, checking site privacy policies and settings,
using strong passwords and not sharing them, thinking twice before posting information,
keeping software updated, and running a security suite from a trusted vendor, for example

14 Article by Kent Lewis EO Portland

15 Article by M. Neela Malar

Norton. and before we use any of these sites we should THINK

T= Is it true H= Is it helpful I= is it important N= is it necessary K= is it kind
Hence, the need of the hour is proper propagation of awareness to all the youth who interact
through social networking sites, to achieve this we only need to work through a perfect coordination between the parents, teachers (who essentially need to guide the teen-agers on
safety-related issues) and law-enforcement agencies . Successful implementation of all these
would definitely enable safe-guarding in social networking sites
And be CREATIVE STRATERGIC AND SAFE!
Encourage everyone to enjoy the sites but to be safe at all times........

REFRENCES
[1] Bagyavati (2009) Social Engineering in Lech J.Janczewski and Andrew M.Colarik
Cyber warefare and cyber terrorism pg: 182
[2]