Protect yourself from social networking scams

Social networking sites are all about sharing and connecting, but if you are not careful, scams can make you vulnerable.

Lauren Hughes, a stay-at-home mom and yoga instructor, uses Facebook to network with the people in her yoga class.

"A lot of them will check my Facebook page to make sure I'm having class before they make plans on whether or not to come to it."

Hughes uses Facebook for what it's for. However, there is a whole underground world of scammers making your business their business.

Dan Thompson from Claris Networks teamed up with Hughes to help her shield personal information.

"Right off the bat, probably the first thing that I would recommend you change, is just removing your birthday," Thompson said.

A study by Carnegie Mellon found researchers could guess social security numbers just by knowing your birthday and your hometown.

"Giving out just a couple of shreds of information could really be damaging if someone had the wrong motives," Thompson said.

Another scam is friend fraud. This is when someone who claims to be one of your "friends," writes you, and says they are in a dire situation and need your help.

"I'm going to wrap you up in a story so quickly, give you a sense of emergency, that you are not going to think about it, and you are just going to send me money," Thompson said.

In these scenarios, Thompson suggests looking for things like misspellings and foreign words. You should also ask the friend questions that only that particular friend would know.

Thompson also recommends being on the lookout for phishing scams.

"Let's say I'm trying to get your Facebook information. I will send you to a webpage that looks identical to Facebook's logon. Then you type in your username and password, and you get some kind of generic error."

At that point, a scammer would have your username and password.

Lauren is now aware of the things that could make her vulnerable. Still, she has to be careful, like everyone else.

"It's in the back of your head, once people you know, but you don't know really well, start friending you," Hughes said.

Thompson says there are a few other things to look out for, like posting where you are and when, downloading a lot of applications, and posting pictures and status updates that are less than desirable. He says to just be responsible when networking online.