Men ‘more vulnerable’ to Facebook scams than women

Men can become victims of Facebook scams more easily than women, a new survey has revealed.

The survey, which took into consideration more than 1,500 internet users in the UK and U.S, found that it is not for the reason that women are naturally more cautious when it comes to sharing private information but because men are suckers for a scantily clad female stranger wanting to be their ‘friend’ on sites like Facebook.

The study conducted by anti-virus software company Bitdefender revealed men were far more likely to: accept friendship requests from strangers; announce their location, ignore privacy settings; leave their account open for all to view; and fail to read a website's privacy policies, the Daily Mail reported.

The study found that 64.2 per cent of women always rejected friendship requests from strangers, while the figure drops to just more than half of men at 55.4 per cent.

A quarter of all men allow strangers to view and search their accounts, compared with 16 per cent of women.

When it comes to revealing their location, the percentage figures are closer together - but men once again lead the way with 25.6 per cent, as opposed to 21.8 per cent of women.

“Men expose themselves to risks more than women, especially when accepting friendship from unknown persons,” Bitdefender’s George Petre said.