Facebook Slow to Respond to Phishing Scam

January 22, 2009 at 1:00 pm PT

The latest phishing scam on Facebook has raised the question yet again as to whether the social-networking site is dropping the ball on security measures and properly responding to privacy complaints.

Facebook faced consumer fraud charges in 2007 for allegedly responding too slowly to user complaints about harassment, pornography or nudity from the social-networking site. The probe into the company’s safety procedures by New York state Attorney General Andrew Cuomo resulted in a settlement requirement that Facebook respond to such complaints within 24 hours.

But in a recent string of phishing attacks in which hackers have broken into a user’s Facebook account and hit up his or her friends for money with the online chat tool, pretending to be stranded or robbed, complaints have emerged that the privacy team at Facebook hasn’t responded to users in a timely manner.

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Tagged with: Andrew Cuomo, Digits, Facebook, fraud, frontpage, harassment, Marisa Taylor, nudity, phishing, pornography, The Wall Street Journal

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