Protect Yourself on Facebook - Identity Thieves Are on Facebook
Protect Yourself on Facebook - Identity Thieves Are on Facebook
Facebook is one of the most popular social networking sites in the US and is growing quickly. The site has over 66 million users with about a quarter million new users each day. While the site is an amazing way to connect with people across the country and around the world, it also is a breeding ground for identity theft.
I am an avid user on Facebook and I love it. I use it to build my business, network and meet new people and stay connected with family and friends. It is an amazing way to meet people and share information in an informal environment. However, you do need to take some precautions to safeguard some of your information.
The amount of information shared on Facebook is scary. Most users list their full name along with birth date, and residence by city and state. Some even include their full address and phone number as well as spouses names and information. The false sense of security lulls users into thinking they can post anything they like on the site.
The large amount of information on Facebook makes this an identity thieves playground. The information can be used to submit a change of address at the Post Office which will then cause your mail to be delivered to them. From there they can open your bills and get your credit card information as well as other pertinent information, allowing them to open bank accounts in your name.
Recently the Social Security Code was broken. All an identity thief needs is your birth date particularly the year of your birth, the city and state where you were born. Social security numbers were assigned in order based upon the date of your birth and the location. A program was written using peoples social security numbers of deceased individuals to break the code. So if you grew up in a small community, this higher the probability they could break the code. I have my birth dates on Facebook but not the year I was born. So if you have the year of your birth, remove it.
There are certain precautions to take beyond not listing the above information on your profile. Making sure your password contains a number along with letters that are not your birth date, dogs name, and the names of your kids, your zodiac sign and other easy ones that after a few tries can be determined.
When joining groups; keep in mind that everyone in that group can see your information. Again, this is another reason to not put too much info on your profile. The Privacy Settings section allows the user to make certain selections to limit access to their profile. Using the "Only My Friends" option on most or all of the choice boxes, limits access to only those you know
This brings us to an important factor. Only accept those people that you know personally as your "friend" on Facebook. So when you use the function of "Only My Friends", then only those people can see your profile. If you are using your site for personal reasons only you also should make your profile not able to be searched in a public search listing, unless you want people to find you for other reasons. There is a box in the settings for that as well.
Use common sense when using social networking sites. Keep in mind that you should only have items on your profile that you do not mind sharing. Keep everything else to yourself. Just like you would not list all of your personal information in paint outside your home. You should not do it on your profile page on Facebook.
Copyright (c) 2009 Debbie Carroll
Author: Debbie Carroll, is a Certified Identity Theft Risk Management Specialist and speaks to groups on Identity Theft issues.
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