When someone stalks you, it can be devastating. You might start to second guess yourself. Is that LinkedIn account really nessecary when a stalker knows where you work and who your boss is? Most people don’t think about that when they are filling out their profiles. The goal of websites such as LinkedIn in are to network and give professional and hard working people an outlet for displaying their credentials. What happens when that information becomes compromised and used against you? Here are 8 tips on preventing online stalkers from preying on you, without having to compromise your social networking ventures because of anonymous online stalkers.

1. Never display your full name or last name publicly. Most sites will have settings to disable your profile from being searchable online.
2. Make all your social network profiles private or exclusive so that others have to be a member to view your profile or friends list.
3. Pay attention to who you friend or connect with, it might just be a fake account set up. View the history of the person and note what type of friends or connections exist with that account.
4. Never use the Places feature in facebook. As tempting as that is, your cyber stalker will only turn into a real-life stalker when he or she starts to learn about your location and patterns!
5. To add on to the previous tip, if you have a 4square or some other kind of location-based account, then don’t use the same alias or username! Better yet, don’t add to the trend by creating an account either. We don’t recommend these types of web sites at all! This makes it easier for your stalker to associate with and find your accounts!
6. If you have to absolutely list your place of employment on your LinkedIn profile, find the corporate office location rather than listing your local office. If this is not an option, use the major/biggest city name close by rather than your town name
7. Change your birthday (on your accounts) immediately. This is a classic way for stalkers to reset your passwords and hack into your accounts –when they’ve gotten your personal information. If your friends are your friends, they will know when your birthday is. Bottom line is, you don’t have to list it for everyone else to see.
8. Delete old posts and entries that are no longer valid or necessary. When stalkers stalk, they are obsessed! And they will search far and wide to find information about you to use against you and strike a conversation with you anonymously or even with your friends and family! Delete those old Facebook statuses, forum and message board posts and twitter tweets!

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Quitstalkingme.com was featured in this article! Please read and pass on to your family and friends. Alert every online user about how to prevent cyber stalking!

The social web is not just a model of our world, but an indelible and growing part of it. People correspond, they do business, and just like in the real world, they have addresses, and mailboxes. And in today’s pervasive and immersive online environment, it’s almost impossible to be completely anonymous. – David Perry, Global Director of Education for Trend Micro,

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Tuesday night a history graduate student at at George Mason University in Virginia stumbled across a threat made by a student against a St. Louis school on the Wikipedia page for Langston Hughes. He alerted history professors and other followers on Twitter. One of the history professors, Marjorie McLellan (@margiemcl on Twitter), grabbed a screen shot of the threat before Wikipedia removed it — without, apparently, notifying police or officials at Lift For Life Academy charter school, south of downtown St. Louis. -Socialmedia.biz

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We made our first official sales on the Quit Stalking Me T-shirt yesterday thanks to you. Please keep supporting this website and help spread the word about preventing cyber stalking to your friends and family. Cyber stalking is a serious crime and cyber stalkers need to know that they can’t cowardly hide behind a computer forever!

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Did you know that 42% of kids have been bullied while online?  Did you know that 35% of kids have been threatened online?  Did you know that Palo Alto is home to the most popular Social Networking site in the world, Facebook?  Did you know that the Palo Alto School District DOES NOT have a cyber-bullying policy?  Surprised?  Me too. - Tangerine Times.

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“Bad guys can see all the things you post. You may be revealing personal information that is extremely valuable.”

Even seemingly innocent information posted on profile pages can sometimes provide opportunities for criminals.

For example, names of grandparents or pets in posted pictures can tip hackers off to answers for typical challenge questions asked before providing information about “forgotten passwords” to online accounts. – newsday.com

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Facebook has been the victim of five different security problems in the past week, says Trend Micro.

According to the security firm, four hoax applications have become available on the social network along with a new variation of the Koobface virus, which was first detected at the end of last year, and directs users to a fake YouTube page where they are encouraged to install malware. – PC World

Facebook applications were never meant to be installed. If you are not sure what the application does exactly and receive an invite from an unknown person, don’t install the application to your profile! Most applications are useless, and keep in mind that anyone can create an application. That includes criminals and stalkers who have a lot more time on their hands to do terrible things like this.

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Tweet about your own experiences with cyber stalking. Spread the news as it happens!

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Individuals can be subject to cyberstalking… but so can small business and corporations. A new report from the Federation of Small Businesses released recently that over 50% of small business were victims of cyber crimes or fraud.

The Federation of Small Businesses released a report that shows over 50% of small businesses fell prey to fraud or cyber crime within the last 12 months. The report also revealed that 37% encountered phishing emails, 15% were victims to card-not-present fraud and 15% were attacked by viruses and hackers’ break-in.

But what is notable with the report is that 1/3 of businesses do not report fraud or online crime to the police or banks on the grounds that they ‘believe that it would not achieve anything’. Over half of the polled said they would like to know more about how and where to report these types of crime with 44% stated they want a specifically named contact in their local police force responsible for tackling fraud and online crime.

85% expressed their interest in creating a special reporting center in England and Scotland so that they would be able to report incidents to this body. The report shows that fraud with a financial impact cost small businesses between £500 and £5,000, while the average cost across the sector is £768 a year. – Ecommerce Journal

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