Close acquaintances of mine have asked me again to post more stories that i know of with regards to the topic above. Well there are more that i know off based on my extensive research on social networks and on the web in general over the years. But there's one that really gives me the chills till today. It happened about 4 years ago before social networking really took off. Four years ago, there were only approximately 2 to 3 social networks which really made their mark (Top 100 Alexa ranking by the way) and i'm sure you'll probably be able to identify which social network in particular i'm talking about. No police report was filed as usual because the victim at that time knew there was nothing the social network operators could do about the incident.
Victim C was a 19 year old female student from Asia (living in the University dorm) and apparently her father who was working in Dubai at that time ran a little English written blog that spoke about his hectic day job and his work experiences with his new colleagues and clients. It turned out that his business dealings turned sour at one point and Victim C's father had vanished and was totally not contactable. Apparently there was some mismanagement of funds and that he vanished without even completing his project. This obviously left the client extremely furious. One thing led to another and 1 week later, Victim C was kidnapped outside her dorm (CCTV's captured this). Not only was she kidnapped but after the kidnapping incident, several circle of her friends were receiving threatening messages on their mobile and were also being harassed in front of their door steps.
What happened was this. The criminals (that's what i shall call them) apparently got hold of photos and other important details about his family from the father's blog. They then created a profile on the same social network as Victim C posing as her father, uploaded his photo, entered his real name and other details which nobody would have thought was a fake profile. They then exchanged messages with Victim C and after gaining access to Victim C's network of friends that's when disaster struck. They got Victim C's dorm address (at the university) and that's how they managed to kidnap her. How they got Victim C's close friends addresses and mobile numbers was remarkable indeed. What they did was that they messaged two to three of Victim C's close friends (while posing as Victim C's father) and told them that he was going to throw a surprise birthday party for Victim C. Extremely cunning people indeed. Sure enough Victim C's friends got death threatening messages and was also harassed outside their homes. They lodged a report with the authorities and a few days later, thankfully, Victim C was released unharmed. The investigating officer (who happens to be an ex-client of mine) told me that they managed to trace Victim C's father's whereabouts and asked him to turn himself in. Negotiations took place and the girl was eventually released.
In Part 1 of my article (the previous article before this), you're probably wondering how can we (as social network users) protect ourselves from unfortunate incidents like these? Or what measures should social network operators implement within their applications in order to prevent or minimize these incidents? Here's one.
One. Social network operators should implement tighter or more stringent privacy controls for their applications. Make these settings mandatory instead of allowing users of social networks to configure different levels of security / privacy controls. In fact, make these tight privacy controls the 'default' setting after a user successfully registers a new profile. Or as i said earlier in my previous article, tell, advice and recommend to your users (during the registration phase) not to use their full name or even real photos of themselves. Also, try to abolish photo tagging or perhaps limiting the photo tagging feature to X number of photos.
Social networking users come in different colors and shapes (user behavior and literacy levels). The age gap too has definitely widen for users of social networks. So guide these users at user experience / behavioral levels. They're not as 'intelligent' or tech savvy as you may have thought. Your new positioning as the safest and most caring social network around in the 21st century may eventually bring you towards great success.
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