MySpace Precautions
Author: David Riewe

MySpace is an online community where members can create
personal websites and meet new friends or reconnect with old
friends. It can be a lot of fun and can also provide excellent
networking opportunities but there are some precautions which
should be taken by all users of MySpace. These precautions
include being aware of the ability for individuals to
misrepresent themselves online, knowing how to avoid being
harmed or scammed and understanding the terms of service on
MySpace. This article will discuss these three key concepts
which are minimum precautions MySpace members should take to
ensure their MySpace experience is pleasurable.

Beware of Wolves in Sheep's Clothing

The Internet provides an excellent opportunity for unscrupulous
individuals to deliberately misrepresent themselves. This
misrepresentation may be somewhat innocent such as lying about
interest or activities for the purpose of being more attractive
to someone you have a crush on or it can be more series. Those
with criminal intent may lie about a number of factors such as
their age, sex and location in order to lure another member
into a harmful situation. There have been numerous stories
which made national headlines about young users of MySpace
being abducted by individuals they met online. Although these
cases are considered to be somewhat rare, they do exist and
members of MySpace should be aware of the potential for this
type of activity.

Those who want to do physical harm to another may deliberately
misrepresent themselves but there are other potentially harmful
reasons why an individual on MySpace might pretend to be someone
else. This can be done to gain the trust of other members before
conducting a financial scam which will result in a significant
loss of money for the MySpace members who are duped in such a
scam.

MySpace members can avoid both physical and financial danger by
exercising caution in their interactions with other members of
the community. This includes emails and instant messages but
care should also be taken to avoid posting sensitive
information on MySpace pages as this information can be viewed
by the general public unless the profile is made private.

Know How Much Information is Too Much

One important precaution MySpace members should take is
safeguarding their personal information. This information
includes, but is not limited to, the following pieces of
information:

* Full name
* Social security number
* Credit card numbers
* Bank account numbers
* Physical address
* Phone number
* Place of birth
* High school attended and year of graduation
* Names of children and location and date of their births

Some of the items on the above list such as social security
number and bank account numbers are pieces of information most
people are aware they should not divulge to the general public.
However, other pieces of information such as high school
attended and year of graduation or names of children and
location and date of their births may seem harmless.
Unfortunately this is not true. These seemingly harmless pieces
of information can be used to research an individual and it
might be possible to deduce where a person lives from this type
of information.

Understand the Terms of Service

Finally, members of MySpace should familiarize themselves with
the terms of service provided by MySpace. This information is
important for a couple of reasons. First it will help MySpace
members to understand their rights as well as the security
features which exist in the community. Members who are aware of
these facts know their course of action if they are harassed by
other members of MySpace. Additionally, being familiar with the
terms of service on MySpace is important because it helps
members to understand which actions are permissible and which
actions are prohibited. This is important because it can
prevent a member from inadvertently breaking the community
rules and running the risk of being banned from the community.
If after reviewing the terms of service you have questions,
contact MySpace directly for clarification.


About The Author: David Riewe is the webmaster of
http://www.daves-inforama.com