The importance of password security on social media was highlighted this week as more than 4000 people RSVP'd for an open house party in South Brisbane after a teenager's Facebook account was hacked.
Police were alerted via Twitter of the open invitation, and contacted the family who live at the address. They are not having a party this weekend, and were unaware their teenage son's Facebook page had been hacked.
The boy's father said it was a lesson for all parents and teenagers who use social media.
"He told me that his account had been hacked into by some friends who advertised the party on Facebook.
"When the numbers of people RSVPing to the party started to climb, he panicked and told us what had happened.
"The first thing I thought of was, how am I going to be able to control this, because the numbers of people coming just kept climbing, it was crazy.
"I told my son that he better tell everyone that the party wasn't happening and no-one was coming in the front gate."
"This is a real eye opener for us. We immediately posted on-line that the party has been cancelled and the account had been hacked," the father said.
Superintendent District Officer of Wynnum District, Jim Keogh said that police would be on hand to ensure that would-be party goers did not cause a disturbance at the address.
"We're now seeing hackers promoting a party via social media that could have potentially seen thousands of people arrive at the residence and the occupant of the address being completely unaware until the event.
Anyone planning on attending the party advertised on Facebook at a private residence in South Brisbane should make other arrangements," Superintendent Keogh said.
'Trolling' and 'Spamming' can often arise from unauthorised access of social media accounts with the account holder's knowledge.
'Trolling' is when individuals are deliberately provocative or offensive in order to provoke a reaction, often using other people's identity, while 'spamming' refers to the sending of bulk unsolicited messages via electronic messaging systems such as email, SMS, or social network messaging.
