You may not be aware that larger size versions of LinkedIn profile pictures are available – that’s only if the owner had originally uploaded a higher resolution version. LinkedIn automatically resizes the uploaded pictures to a uniform “thumbnail” size of 60 pixels x 60 pixels, but the original is also made available for anyone to view.

Here’s how to view yours or anyone’s:

1. Hover over the profile picture.
2. A “magnifier” tool image appears in the bottom right of pic.
3. Click on the “plus” in the magnifier and the full-size picture will appear in a pop-up window.

If there is no larger picture available the tool does not appear.

Privacy tip: Resize your picture before uploading. 200 or 250 pixels maximum is big enough for a contact or potential contact to know it’s really you.

Someone has created a Google Plus Page for Bank of America, trashing the nation’s largest bank with a series of mocking photos, images and other posts,

Full Story: Bank of America’s Google Plus Page Appears ‘Brandjacked’

The Google + page is still visible here.

So, can just anyone setup a Google+ page for another business? For your business? The answer is yes. There is no checking done for permission!

Google’s response to this situation, according to the article, is : the company doesn’t comment on individual Plus pages, “we also rely on the community (as with a lot of our other products like Android Market and YouTube) to help report profiles they feel are violating our policies. You can see a ‘Report this Profile’ link on the left hand side of the page.”

My take: Social media. Sometimes a friend. Sometimes a foe. Always needs monitoring.

An attractive young lady going by the name of Jenn Collins is in the process of friending hundreds of people on Facebook, many of them members of the UK based business network, Ecademy.  A few days ago she had 488 friends, today 553. Jenn says she lives in Miami Florida and speaks multiple languages. She is also polite, friendly and likes the movies Spiderman and Braveheart.

Unfortunately the pictures, as seen above, are not hers. Nor is Jenn who “she” claims to be. It’s fake and the prelude to a probable scam or other misuse of trust. The person or persons operating the Facebook account are using social engineering to quickly build a pliable and trusting following. The use of provocative pictures has ensured that plenty of men accepted in a flash. No surprise there, just human nature at work.

It’s also the real-world manifestation of the occasional darker side of being “Open Random and Supportive”* (ORS*), a networking methodology frequently advocated on Ecademy and by its founders. So it should come as no surprise that Ecademy Chairman Thomas Power is one of Jenn’s friends!

If I’m wrong about this fine young lady I’ll happily travel to Miami to meet Jenn in person, confirm her identity and report back. Of course, I’ll also retract this blog.

I have a good idea who is behind this, but I’m not saying more at this time, other than to say there is a clue on Facebook that leads to the operator(s).

* Copyright © The Ecademy Ltd. 2009 – 2011

Cyber crooks out for LinkedIn members’ bank accounts

“crooks have inundated LinkedIn with emails crafted to trick members of the career-oriented social networking service into downloading software that loots bank accounts.”

Read the rest of story from the Associated Press.

Comments by Nick Braak:

The emails attempt to get you to login to LinkedIn to view or accept the invitation. In fact the links in the emails lead to websites that attempt to infect your computer with the Zeus banking Trojan, one of the most devious and serious security threats in circulation. The Zeus trojan attempts to capture logins and passwords to banking websites, ebay, paypal etc. and pass your credentials on to cybercriminals.

Legitimate LinkedIn invites are duplicated in the LinkedIn inbox. If in doubt go to the LinkedIn website directly, login there and if the emailed invite is not also in the inbox it is not genuine and should be deleted without opening.

Note: Only Windows computers are at risk for the Zeus Trojan.

Related articles

• Zeus Trojan secretly transferred $1 million from UK bank accounts (news.cnet.com)

An interesting blog this morning from the Washington Post. The added underlined emphasis is mine.

Celebrity Deaths — and the impact of an ‘overly Twittered culture’ by Adam Bernstein

Lisa France, a writer and producer at CNN.com, has this story today on celebrity death of 2009 and why it may appear to some that this year was different from the past.

Minor figures like Brittany Murphy and DJ AM get elevated to rock-star status for various reasons — the deaths come at a shockingly young age, for example — but mostly because those who care about their lives are young social networkers who drive tremendous traffic online.

Brittany Murphy had a devoted following but is vastly unknown to a great many film lovers. Which is not to say or imply she was without talent, but her performances drew mixed reviews, her promise was largely unfulfilled and she never said anything particularly memorable about her craft. Yet she gets outrageous attention because of online interest, whereas a proven and talented, Academy Award-winning actress like Jennifer Jones, who died days earlier, gets comparably little attention.

What do you think about the impact of social networking and what CNN’s France calls our “overly Twittered culture”?

Confused about Facebook’s new privacy changes? No surprise if you are, the changes are sweeping.

Here are two good up-to-date quality guides that I recommend.

From Reputation Defender (user-friendly with multiple screenshots)

From the ACLU Dotrights.org site (detailed, comprehensive, tabular grids showing options. Can be a bit intimidating for the novice)

Confused or not, you MUST be sure that you choose the correct settings to control what is public and private. The new Facebook defaults leave you quite exposed, with much of what you post on Facebook viewable by friends, enemies and strangers alike, unless you take action and adjust your privacy settings.

Gangs in New York talk Twitter: Use tweets to trash-talk rivals, plan fights

Manhattan’s young thugs have turned to Twitter, and the cops who track them are fast behind, the Daily News has learned.

It’s old-school crime meets new technology: attacks being plotted – and thwarted – 140 characters at a time.

Read the full article at the New York Daily News

My take: Nothing to really worry about. Telephones, email, IM and all forms of electronic communication are used by the Good, the Bad and the Ugly. The same goes for Social Media tools and platforms, especially when they are free and allow anonymous signups.

If you’re one of the many who wonder where all this social networking interconnectedness is going, and why it HAS changed at least a part of the world, I suggest you watch an important video rebroadcast of an event that took place in London a couple of days ago.

I warn you it’s a lengthy video, over an hour, but in it you’ll hear the real, up-to-date mega-overview from three people who are actually at the controls at 10,000 feet.

The three are:

* Reid Hoffman, CEO of LinkedIn,

* Biz Stone, founder of Blogger and Twitter

* Stephen Fry, thespian and twitter celeb

The format is a panel discussion with audience questions, so you’ll need to listen and try to grab onto the many facts and memes.

My take is that only the most hardened nay-sayer could fail to be wowed by the enormity of how powerful this stuff is.

Powerful as in world and business changing.

Permanently.

No that doesn’t mean everyone has to use twitter, join or use any service or website or worship anyone. Like it or not the change is happening around you. If you want to stay on the sidelines, or keep your relationships close and personal that’s fine. Just don’t deny there is a wave, otherwise you might just drown

Video is here at the Nesta website. No registration required. The event was part of the “Silicon Valley comes to the UK” series.

P.S. I found a pointer to this on twitter, otherwise I probably wouldn’t have seen it.