Author: dani
Web designer/front-end web developer who hugs trees, loves animals, and is totally addicted to social media. :) Find me @ danimcdaniel.com or tweet me @dani!

Myspace is a great place to stay connected with friends or to meet new ones however it is also a great place to get phished or scammed as well. Here are a few ways in which you can protect yourself on Myspace.

• Back up your profile – You back up everything else why not your Myspace profile? The best way to do this is the open a blank notepad document (notepad not Word or Wordpad) and copy each section of your Myspace profile into the notepad document and save it to your harddrive. Do this everytime you add to or change your profile and that way if anything ever happens you can get your profile back up in no time.
• Pay Attention – Just because you are on your friend’s profile page does not mean that you can’t get phished! If you click on a link or picture and it takes you to the Myspace login page, be careful! Make sure and type Myspace.com into your address bar to make sure you are truly at the Myspace home page. Also, if you click a link in Myspace make sure the address you are intending to go to is actually the address you are at! Always check your address bar. Another simple way to make sure the link is the same is to enable the status bar at the bottom of your browser window (top of your browser click view then click status bar, that should enable it at the bottom of your browser) and mouse over the link. The actual address will appear in the status bar. Make sure it is the same address you are clicking on! Don’t ever click on anything you feel might be suspicious in anyway. Web sites are capable of stealing information from you whether you actually click on anything or not.
• Don’t fall for it – Though I am certain there are legitimate needs being posted on Myspace unless you can verify the organization or source of the request don’t fall for it. There are plenty of scams on Myspace and chances are the person/persons/animals are not dying, starving, or saving a life but merely trying to get your credit card or bank information to steal from you later. NEVER give out your financial information unless you are at a secure, reputable site such as Paypal, Ebay, etc. and even then you should be careful. You can verify that you are on a secure site by checking your browser for the lock icon or by looking at the web address, making sure it begins with a https rather than http. (Mozilla Firefox is the most secure browser you can use. Download it here.)
• Change your password – Change your password OFTEN! And if you ever feel as though you might have been led to a phishing page or accidentally put your login information into a page you believe might be bogus… CHANGE YOUR PASSWORD! (Just be sure and remember your new one!) When you change your password get creative… Don’t just use all letters, mix it up! Use all the allowed characters possible and if it is case sensitive, take advantage of it by using both capital and lowercase letters.

Here are a few more articles on the subject:

• Myspace Scams
• How to Protect Your Personal Information, Privacy on Your MySpace Profile | Associated Content
• Myspace Safety & Security Tips for Parents | Symantec

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