Keeping track of new music, media and industry news.

Frank Abagnale, the “world’s greatest conman” who provided the inspiration for the Leonardo DiCaprio flick “Catch Me If You Can”, has stated that: “What I did 40 years ago as a teenage boy is 4,000 times easier now”. The rise of social networking sites has aided criminals considerably according to Abagnale, who used Facebook as an example:

“If you tell me your date of birth and where you’re born [on Facebook] I’m 98% [of the way] to stealing your identity. Never state your date of birth and where you were born [on personal profiles], otherwise you are saying ‘come and steal my identity’.”

He stopped short of blaming the site for poor provacy protection though, putting the onus squarely on the user.

“Your privacy is the only thing you have left. Don’t blame all the other companies – Google, Facebook – you control it. You have to keep control of your own information.”

So that’s why he never accepted my friend request…