"He said that someone had sent him a chat message from me on Facebook and through my e-mail account that said I was in London with my family and I had been held up at gunpoint," said Rivel.
Elana's friend immediately suspected that the message he received was bogus and that Elana's accounts had been hacked.
Consumer Reports, Kim Kleman said, "Elana's friend did exactly the right thing. When he became suspicious, he found a way to get through to the real Elana. And she immediately had that Facebook and e-mail account closed."
So that doesn't happen to you, Consumer Reports says the best ways to protect your identity:
Create a hard-to-guess password using upper and lowercase letters mixed in with numbers.
Leave your birth year off your profile to help prevent identity theft.
And definitely use the site's privacy controls.
"We found that one in four households using Facebook either doesn't know about or doesn't choose to use privacy controls. Not using such controls can expose your pictures and other information to just about anybody on the internet," said Kleman.
To set the controls on Facebook, go to your "Account" on the upper right of the screen. Pick "Privacy Settings" and then decide what you want to share and with whom. For instance, "Photos and Videos" could be for "Only Friends" or "Friends of Friends."
Consumer Reports says posting information about going on vacation or business trips is another mistake people make. That leaves you vulnerable to break-ins.
As for Elana, she's re-opened her Facebook account. But she says she's using a stronger password and plans on changing it frequently to thwart hackers.
