How You Expose Yourself to Identity Theft with “Fun” Facebook Posts

How You Expose Yourself to Identity Theft with “Fun” Facebook Posts

How often have you seen posts such as, “Find out your rock star name”  Or your “Star Wars name” or “What your personality is?”

They often use your birth month, and day you were born.  You then post this in response.  Some ask about your first pet’s name…  For instance, there was a recent one, your stripper name – Your first pet’s name and the last thing you ate.  There were several posts asking your first concert.

What do these have in common?  They are often used as questions for your bank accounts, passwords, PayPal, computer systems and people use them as passwords.  First pet, month and day of birth, first concert, first car, etc.  These are usually posted by your friends because they think they are fun.  Unfortunately, hackers and identity thieves are the ones that start these “fun” posts that quickly circulate.

You might have much of this information already in your profile.  I won’t say how, but the information in my profile is incorrect.  In fact, the information on all my online profiles are wrong.  When I send in information for magazines and other services, I use different middle initials.  Later, when I get junk mail or phone calls, I can determine who sold my information based on the middle initial used.  The other information is the same.  One of my sisters even asked me why some of my information is wrong.  I told her to please not correct it publicly.

Be aware of this information, posting pictures or names of your kids, posting your address then letting people know you are going to be out on vacation for a week…  All those things are very dangerous for burglary, identity theft and other people looking to do you harm.  The next time you find a “fun” quiz online, just look at the information requested before answering.