Social networking can be great fun if you're careful

The FBI recently announced that there has been an increase in the number of hacked social networking accounts.

Social networking profiles are getting hijacked with increasing frequency, according to the Internet Crime Complaint Center (IC3). The FBI made sure to mention that social networking sites are generally safe, but that it might also be a good idea to exercise a little caution when visiting them. This could be good advice to follow no matter what sort of site you use.

The Feds say that you should consider: adjusting your privacy settings, carefully choosing whose friend requests you accept, limiting access to your profile and not clicking on any old link that seems like it might be interesting.

They also say that one popular scam involves online dirtbags planting dangerous software onto people's computers. This will send out a spam message to all of those people's online friends and their computers could be infected with a virus that steals passwords as a result.

If you think your profile might have been hacked, the FBI says you should go to the IC3 website.