identity theft<\/a>.<\/p>\nAny information or preferences that you share through social media can be used in combination with other things to piece together an idea of who you are, and help identity thieves to assume your identity either to:<\/p>\n
\u2022 Figure out security passwords
\n\u2022 Access your financial accounts or funds
\n\u2022 Open false lines of credit under your identity
\n\u2022 Assume your identity and commit crimes<\/p>\n
Something as simple as \u201cchecking in\u201d on Facebook or tweeting that you\u2019re at this amazing restaurant or taking a vacation, tells a thief your location and also exposes the fact that your house is vulnerable. Or, even if you\u2019re being smart and not posting anything but the basic profile information, social media sites have started asking for more personal information as you sign-up, making it harder to prevent identity theft. Some of this requested account information includes:<\/p>\n
\u2022 Full Names (including your middle name)
\n\u2022 Date of Birth (to verify you\u2019re over a certain age)
\n\u2022 Schooling\/Education (graduation dates and locations)
\n\u2022 Profile Photo
\n\u2022 Hometown or Current City
\n\u2022 Who You\u2019re Related To
\n\u2022 Relationship Status
\n\u2022 Pet names
\n\u2022 Affiliations, Interests, and Hobbies
\n\u2022 Accomplishments<\/p>\n
Using just this basic information, an identity thief can start their own profiles under your name to use for malicious or fraudulent activity or to gain access to your private account by guessing your passwords and answering your security questions.<\/p>\n
Another vulnerable access point for users is when you download or use apps tied to your social media channels, many of which have not been reviewed or verified, because this allows the app to pull information that you\u2019ve shared on your profile. If someone can bypass the security on the app, then they have access to your profile information.<\/p>\n
Due to a lack of strict standard regulations or requirements to safeguard users sharing their personal information, social media organizations are left own their own in deciding how they protect their users\/members from being exposed to identity theft or fraud. These social media platforms are motivated to gather detailed information because they can use it to generate revenue by either sharing some of that information to advertisers or by providing targeted marketing opportunities directly to those advertisers.<\/p>\n
Some steps to prevent identity theft, aside from erasing all your accounts on social media (which still may leave you vulnerable, since there\u2019s left-over data floating around) is to:<\/p>\n
\u2022 Be smart and never give out your confidential information, such as social security numbers or driver\u2019s license number
\n\u2022 Use different passwords for the various accounts, and change them often
\n\u2022 Use a unique username and password for each profile or account
\n\u2022 Consider using a nickname rather than your real name
\n\u2022 If you must enter personal identifying data to sign-up, use privacy settings to hide information that you wouldn\u2019t share with a stranger
\n\u2022 For social or professional networking, be wary of providing too much information, rather try to connect in person
\n\u2022 Only accept invitations or offers to connect from people you have actually met and know
\n\u2022 To ensure your passwords stay secure, use code words or a password for all answers to security verification questions rather than entering the actual answer
\n\u2022 If entering a false birth date to protect that information, keep the date close to one you\u2019ll remember
\n\u2022 Actively search for information about yourself, Google your name, your user name or ID, your email, and any other identifying information to see what\u2019s out there
\n\u2022 Monitor your credit using your free annual credit report or by enrolling in a monthly subscription service<\/p>\n
According to a State-of-the-Net survey conducted by Consumer Reports, if you experience identity theft, it can take 30+ hours, multiple phone conversations with various agencies, documentation, and possibly professional representation to prove you are the victim of identity theft, which can all cost hundreds of dollars. Instead of trying to clean up the mess, enact security measure to prevent identity theft in the first place.<\/p>\n
Have you ever been the victim of identity theft? Feel free to share your thoughts in the comments section below.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Could your Tweets, posts on your Facebook page, Instagram photos, and information on your LinkedIn profile be making you more prone to becoming a victim of identity theft? With the growing amount of activity and time we spend on social media, whether for entertainment, social purposes, or business, we become more comfortable with the idea […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":6723,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"inline_featured_image":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[709],"tags":[139,502],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.costulessdirect.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2685"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.costulessdirect.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.costulessdirect.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.costulessdirect.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.costulessdirect.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2685"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.costulessdirect.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2685\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":6724,"href":"https:\/\/www.costulessdirect.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2685\/revisions\/6724"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.costulessdirect.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/6723"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.costulessdirect.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2685"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.costulessdirect.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2685"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.costulessdirect.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2685"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}