Social Media and Identity Theft: Are You Putting Yourself in Harm’s Way?
Many of us enjoy social media. It’s fun to connect with people we don’t regularly see, keep up to date on each other’s lives, and share entertaining posts with our friends. It’s a great tool to get to know more about someone we’ve just met and to find out what we have in common. Social media has become so simple to use and a regular part of our daily lives that it can be easy to freely post information without thinking of unintended consequences, namely who may have access to the information that you willingly shared on the internet.
How long would it take for someone to access your social media and really get to know you, including personal information about you? How long would it take for someone to gather sensitive personal information about you to facilitate identity theft, drain a bank account or hack into your credit card account?
Common security questions for access to your accounts are things like: What is your mother’s maiden name? What is your pet’s name? What high school did you go to? What was your high school mascot? Date of birth. City you grew up in. City you were born in. Street you grew up on. What is your favorite sports team?
Be careful. You could be making it easy for an identity thief to capture your information through what you have voluntarily posted on social media. Think for a moment how someone, with a little bit of effort, could find this information about you. Mother’s maiden name: many people include their maiden names Facebook, and we often identify family members in the “about” section. Have you wished your mother “Happy Mother’s Day” on Facebook, naming or tagging her? Date of birth: that’s an easy one to get on Facebook. “Happy Birthday” wishes are flattering so most people include their full birthdate in their information, which will display on your birthday indicating how old you are. The street you grew up on could be identified through a public records search. High school, also easy on Facebook and if you can figure out the high school, the mascot is effortless through a two second internet search. College. Chances are it is listed on your Facebook and LinkedIn accounts. Pet’s name. Favorite sports team. Scroll through your posts and information. How hard would this be?
It is even easier for an identity thief to hack into accounts or impersonate you through use of the internet than any other means, such as by phone, on paper or in person. This of course could result in substantial harm to you including full blown identity theft as discussed above, as well as embarrassment, legal problems, and great inconvenience. The costs can be multi-fold and devastating: the theft of your money, the cost to repair your credit, the time out of your life that it takes to rectify the damage, and the great deal of stress imposed upon you. Believe it or not, identity theft has even included finding one’s medical condition to hack into medical and/or insurance records for the purchase of prescription drugs.
There are two points to remember here. Be careful about what you post and share on the internet. Additionally, think through the passwords you set up and the security questions you choose. They may seem like a nuisance, and it is tempting to make them easy to remember for ourselves, but they really are there for our protection. Make the best of these security measures; do not make it easy for someone to do damage to you. When using social media, remember the risk of identity theft. Look at the information you share: Are you putting yourself in harm’s way?
LouAnn Schulfer of Schulfer & Associates, LLC Wealth Management can be reached at (715) 343-9600 or louann.schulfer@lpl.com TheWealthInformationLady.com SchulferAndAssociates.com , or louann.biz
Securities and advisory services offered through LPL Financial, a Registered Investment Advisor. Member FINRA/SIPC.
