Beware Facebook games

A game in Facebook, called 'Mob Wars', can be used by cyber criminals to collect personal data, says WBal TV.

By filling out applications for anything from car loans to prescription drugs to adult magazine subscriptions, a player gets extra points. "One asked for my Social Security number. I was a little nervous about that," the teen said, "but decided to give it out anyway."

"Facebook will probably claim no responsibility for that because it was a third-party Web site that you went to when you clicked on that link," said Bill Sieglein, VP of Sabera, a computer security company.

According to ABC News, Detective Lieutenant Thomas Kish of the Michigan State Police says that predators view games that allow kids to access the Internet and text message other players as a "foot in the door".

Parents may not realise that gaming consoles have become Internet devices or that savvy kids can bypass parental controls, says Marc Rogers, director of Purdue University's Cyber Forensics Lab.

Police who have been doing stings in Internet chat rooms for years now are going undercover to catch predators playing interactive games, ranging from Grand Theft Auto to old-fashioned chess and checkers. They're making arrests.

Game Group says the computer games market is "absolutely not" at a peak and is confident of a strong release schedule in the run-up to Christmas, says Reuters.

Some analysts have suggested that, with no new games consoles due for release in the near future, the games market will struggle to maintain recent growth rates.

"The point to make is that we haven't seen any new console releases in the first half and we were up against the launch of PlayStation last year," chief executive Lisa Morgan told reporters.