Now fraudsters may log on as your “friend.” How Facebook, LinkedIn, and other social networking sites are fighting a rise in scamsRemember the associate of that deposed dictator who needed your help transferring a few million dollars from a Swiss bank account? Well, he’s back. And he — or one of his ilk — may show up soon posing as your “friend” on Facebook.Someone bearing an eerie resemblance to those ubiquitous perpetrators of so-called Nigerian scams ended up in the online social network of Australian citizen Karina Wells. Earlier this month Wells received a message on Facebook from someone she thought was her real-life friend Adrian. He wrote that he was stranded in Lagos, Nigeria, had no access to a phone, and needed Wells to wire $500 for a plane ticket home. “Adrian” even pleaded for help in a real-time conversation over Facebook’s chat service.
http://www.businessweek.com/technology/content/nov2008/tc20081119_974324.htm