Is that you on the porn site?

Hackers are making a fortune by selling pictures from social networking websites to desi porn portals

Don't be surprised if the next time you log on to a desi porn website and find your pictures posted on it.
u00a0
Hackers are earning a quick buck by selling photographs stolen from social networking websites like Orkut and Twitter.

Users put photographs while creating their profiles on these websites and on many occasions the photographs are accessible to all.

Many of the users block access to their photographs on their profiles but there is no dearth of accounts that have open access to pictures posted on them.
u00a0
The hackers target such profiles and steal them for selling to shady websites that include porn and online friendship ones.

Ankit Saxena (name changed), an IT professional, was shocked to see his girlfriend's pictures on an adult friend finder website.
u00a0
There was a further link for "explicit" pictures on payment of a certain amount. Ankit was shocked to find that his girlfriend had posted the same pictures on her Twitter account.

Interestingly, the website had also given a link to her Twitter account along with the photograph.

With the growth in the number of users on social networking websites, the threat of identity theft has also grown many folds.

According to cyber security experts, identity theft has assumed dangerous proportions.

Cyber criminals are now copying and extracting pictures from private albums on social networking websites and selling them for Rs 50-80 each.

These pictures are used as bait by pornographic and adult dating websites.

Few websites have made a separate segment for college and school girls where anonymous users keep posting pictures extracted from social networking sites with full profile details.

Delhi-based cyber security expert Sahil Khan said, "Such thefts are becoming common these days.

If you have a profile on a website like Orkut or Facebook you should limit the access to your immediate friends only, especially for the photographs posted on it.

Hackers do not only use such pictures for pornography but there have been cases in which they have been used for financial frauds too."

These pictures are also available at Palika Bazar, Nehru Place and Ghaffar Market. Most of the smalltime vendors sell such pictures as wallpaper and screen savers at dirt-cheap rates.

Sanjay, who sells fake CDs outside Nehru Place, said: "People are no longer interested in wallpapers of Bollywoodu00a0 stars. They want pictures of realu00a0 girls."

A CD of 1,000 such photos is available at only Rs 50.
u00a0
Anther cyber security expert Vivek Vohra said, "It is not just about your pictures being stolen. Many such pictures are morphed and put on XXX websites."

Small time vendors in markets like Palika Bazar, Nehru Place and Ghaffar maket say, pics stolen from social networking sites are in high demand. A CD containing 1000 such photos are available for just Rs 50