The BBC reports that social sites such as Myspace and Facebook are prime targets of cyber thieves.
The quasi-intimate nature of the sites makes people share information readily leaving them open to all kinds of other attacks, warn security firms.
Detailed information gathered via the sites will also help tune spam runs or make phishing e-mail more convincing.
It is not just the information that people make public that they wouldn’t ordinarily tell a stranger but that add-ons to these social sites may inadvertently create vulnerabilities whereby criminals can compromise a users computer and install trojans or keylogging software to steal bank details.