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Chances are, not everyone on your social media site is someone you would haphazardly hand your credit card to. Yet, many people are treating social media sites like a trusted best friend or even an ATM when they share photos, travel plans, birthdays and addresses publicly with the world. Because of the lasting damage that identity theft can have on credit scores and long-term financial health, it’s important to break the link between social media, ID Theft and your credit.
According to the Bureau of Justice Statistics, identity theft is broken down into three segments:
- Unauthorized use or attempted use of existing credit cards
- Unauthorized use or attempted use of other existing accounts, such as checking accounts
- Misuse of personal information to obtain new accounts or loans, or to commit other crimes.
Consumers most at risk of identity theft are those who don’t regularly check their bank accounts and credit scores, which are most often children and the elderly. According to a 2012 report from Carnegie Mellon CyLab, children are targeted 35 times for identity theft more than adults, and 15 percent of the victims are under the age of five. Kids that have grown up in the social media environment are not afraid of what they share. They also don’t apply for credit and don’t have as much activity around their bank accounts so it takes longer to see if their identity has been compromised.
While the older generation is less apt to participate on Twitter, they are also less likely to apply for a mortgage, car loan or other purchase that requires a credit check. Years can go by before any unusual activity is noticed on their credit scores.
However, 12 million Americans fell victim to identity theft last year and they certainly weren’t all children and elderly. In fact, every three seconds, someone in the United States becomes a victim of identity fraud, according to Javelin Strategy & Research 2013 Identity Fraud Report. This means over 5% of all U.S. adults were affected by identity theft in 2012.
Think you’re not at risk? Go to http://protectyourprofile.org for a realistic look into what criminals could obtain from your Facebook account. It recently won a 2013 Marcom Gold Award for the realism of the experience.
Social Media’s Role
Information in social media can let criminals piece together enough of a story to steal identities without being caught. “Hackers can take family names, addresses, phone numbers and use that data to try and figure out passwords. These people can sell your information to other criminals in their network and it’s worth a lot on the black market,” says David Anderson, directory of product at Protect Your Bubble.com.
For example, a Facebook user can be duped into giving up personal information through fake posts asking for likes, votes, or clicks. These messages look legit because they appear to be sent by a friend. The user many not think twice about entering contact details like a phone number to participate in a contest, special or poll. Once they enter this personal information, they become susceptible to identity theft as criminals start to share data that may ultimately result in capturing payment credentials like credit or debit card numbers.
In fact, just this December hackers swooped in to capture login information from over 2 million Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn and Google accounts. Facebook accounted for over half of the compromised accounts and left victims vulnerable and uncertain about just how much information the hackers consumed.
How to Break the Link
On social media, consumers must personally self-manage information and stay on top of security settings to keep their credit secure. According to the National Cyber Security Alliance, no individual, business, or government entity is solely responsible for securing the Internet.
Everyone has a role in securing their part of cyberspace because individual actions have a collective impact on making the Internet more secure. What role can you play? Here are five simple steps you can take to unlink your social media account from your credit and from the risk of identity theft.
- Take the time to review credit card statements each month for fraudulent charges.
- Remember when you share information on social media, it’s not in a bank vault.
- Choose a secure password that doesn’t include your birthday or pet name. Make passwords at least 8 characters long, combining uppercase and lower case letters, numbers and symbols.
- Alternate passwords for different accounts. Using the same password on Facebook as your online banking is a huge risk.
- Never send money based on a Facebook post or message. If you get a request from a friend that seems out of character, be aware that their account may have been hacked and ask them directly rather than assuming it is a legitimate request.
Don’t let thieves ruin your credit or financial stability. Learn more about keeping your identity and finances safe at http://us.protectyourbubble.com/id-theft. Please take steps to protect yourself and share this information with others to help fight against identity theft.
About Author: Dechay Watts is Chief Content Strategist at Sprout Content.
