Show your face on Facebook

Internet users beware: All is not as it seems in cyberspace.

This may not come as a surprise to you, as I’m sure you’re careful with your bank accounts and your credit card numbers when online. But you may need to think about who may be behind the scenes on some fan sites on Facebook, a popular social networking site.

Facebook is not a competitive site, it’s just a fun, free and effective way to network. Anyone can do it. On my own page, I post photos of recent outings, of the grandkids’ antics, and just reconnect with old friends.

Last month I started to receive e-mails inviting me to join new community Facebook fan sites, all seemingly sponsored by local communities. “Welcome to East Rockaway,” “Welcome to Lynbrook,” “Welcome to Baldwin.” “Welcome to Oceanside,” they read. And they were so well coordinated and executed — as if they were created by the same entity. They were all listed as government- based sites. So, I became a fan of East Rockaway and Lynbrook.

After looking around on the discussion boards and the postings by the site administrator, I noticed that something wasn’t right. I’m familiar with how each community operates, and this just didn’t jibe with what I was used to. These sites were virtually identical to one another. One public relations company, hired by all of these towns? Not likely.

“Please become a fan and share this page with your friends and other residents of the community.” They each invited people to post their comments, photos, stories and thoughts about their hometown. I called East Rockaway and Lynbrook village halls, and was assured that these fans pages were not their creations. And it was unusual that there weren’t any contact e-mail addresses, nor the name of an administrator. Very strange.

Also, what community-sponsored site would post links such as “PETITION: New Yorkers Against the MTA Payroll Tax,” or, during election time, Chris Browne’s bid for Legislator: “Let's all show Chris that Rockville Centre is behind him — add him as a friend on Facebook, and make sure we all go out and vote for him on Tuesday, November 3rd.” Were all of our community officials Browne fans?