11 November 2011
According to a recent survey, men are more likely than women to be scammed on Facebook, especially if the predator is a sexy female.
The study - commissioned by anti-virus software company Bitdefender - surveyed a group of 1,649 men and women with adequate online security knowledge in the US and UK.
The study found 64.2 per cent of women rejected unknown Facebook friend requests compared to 55.4 per cent of men.
Men were even more likely to hit the 'confirm' button if there was an attractive female profile picture. On the flip side, women showed no noticeable difference when presented with a fetching photo of their target sex.
Furthermore, about 24.5 per cent of men allow their profiles to be searchable by strangers, compared to just 16 per cent of women.
Culturally speaking, the man/woman disparity is not completely surprising. Bitdefender's social media security manager George Petre explained that women's reservation in accepting offers of strangers predated not just Facebook and social networking, but the Internet as well. Women are raised to fear men more than the reverse situation.
He said: "Men expose themselves to risks more than women, especially when accepting friendships from unknown persons.
"On a positive note, the survey also showed that only about a quarter of users were willing to share their location on social networks, which makes location disclosure an important privacy concern."
Location sharing or not, the danger isn't always physical. Men are encouraged to keep a close eye on their passwords, account numbers and other sensitive information to avoid being targets of cyber-crime. Sometimes that friend request from a good looking stranger is just too good to be true.
"Sexy" scams attract men on Facebook
According to a recent survey, men are more likely than women to be scammed on Facebook, especially if the predator is a sexy female. The study - commissioned by anti-virus software company Bitdefender - surveyed a group of 1,649 men and women with adequate online security knowledge in the US and UK.
The study found 64.2 per cent of women rejected unknown Facebook friend requests compared to 55.4 per cent of men.
Men were even more likely to hit the 'confirm' button if there was an attractive female profile picture. On the flip side, women showed no noticeable difference when presented with a fetching photo of their target sex.
Furthermore, about 24.5 per cent of men allow their profiles to be searchable by strangers, compared to just 16 per cent of women.
Culturally speaking, the man/woman disparity is not completely surprising. Bitdefender's social media security manager George Petre explained that women's reservation in accepting offers of strangers predated not just Facebook and social networking, but the Internet as well. Women are raised to fear men more than the reverse situation.
He said: "Men expose themselves to risks more than women, especially when accepting friendships from unknown persons.
"On a positive note, the survey also showed that only about a quarter of users were willing to share their location on social networks, which makes location disclosure an important privacy concern."
Location sharing or not, the danger isn't always physical. Men are encouraged to keep a close eye on their passwords, account numbers and other sensitive information to avoid being targets of cyber-crime. Sometimes that friend request from a good looking stranger is just too good to be true.
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