Nobody wants to have their identity stolen, but are you doing anything to prevent that from happening?
The things you do online every day could be putting you at risk for identity theft. Something as harmless as filling out a quiz online line or a poll on Facebook could give people enough information about you to hack into your accounts and steal your money or, even worse, your ID.
Many of the quizzes you see online might appear to ask some simple questions, but they are really asking for the answer to the common password questions.
Hackers create these quizzes to trick people. You think you are having fun and taking an innocent quiz when really you are giving out important information that can be used to gain access to your email and bank accounts.
The Sutton Police Department in Massachusetts became aware of these quizzes and posted a warning on its Facebook page for everyone to see.
“Please be aware of some of the posts you comment on. [These questionable posts] ask what was your first-grade teacher, who was your childhood best friend, your first car, the place you [were] born, your favorite place, your first pet, where did you go on your first flight, etc. …Those are the same questions asked when setting up accounts as security questions. You are giving out the answers to your security questions without realizing it.”
The reason this works for so many hackers is that most people think that because they don’t give away their actual password, their information is safe.
If you think about the way you recover your own forgotten password and realize that hackers can do it the exact same way, it all starts to make sense.
The simple quiz that was going to generate a fairy name for you by combining your middle name and the street you live on was just collecting those answers so they can be used to try to recover your password and hack into your accounts.
If you set your password recovery questions to be “What street did you grow up on?” or “What is your middle name?” the hackers now have those answers and access to the account. It’s that fast and easy for them to learn anything they want about you.
Technologist Rachel Rothman with the Good Housekeeping Institute said:
“A nugget of information in isolation may not seem like a big deal but combining that with other data that may be out there can result in a greater threat. Be mindful of photos or posts that could give away information about your location or self (like your birthday) and consider if you are posting something that could be used to locate you offline or make it easier for someone to figure out any of your passwords.”
Whether they use your account to buy themselves a new phone, open up a new line of credit, or find your birthdate and social security number to steal your identity is up to them.
Being hacked can leave you feeling violated.
Avoid filling out these types of quizzes online, and make your account password questions harder to figure out. You can also make fake answers for these password recovery questions. Instead of using the real name of the street you grew up on, use a different street, add a couple numbers at the end of it, or type it backward. That way, even if a hacker does learn the actual answers to these recovery questions, they can’t gain access to your accounts.
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