Sensitive financial information

Social networks and sensitive financial information

Most people think that they are perfectly awareof how to stay safe when online. They just need to make sure that they don’t post any sensitive financial information when they go online on their favorite social networking sites. It’s easy, isn’t it? Well maybe not.

Sensitive financial information on social networking sites?

What kind of information do you have on your Facebook page that is visible to the public? Just some harmless information about your birthday, perhaps the name of your pet, something about your favorite movie or where you went to school? Do you realize that all kinds of financial transactions require that you supply your date of birth? And do you realize that your e-mail password is the name of your pet or your favorite movie? It may seem like it is just harmless everyday information; but the security questions for your PayPal account, for your e-mail account and who knows what else, actually are those very things.

Social Media Marketing – be careful.

The security questions, in case you forget your password, usually go something like, “Who was your first teacher?”, or “What is the name of your favorite movie?”. You get the idea. The moment fraudsters watching social networking sites get a piece of information like this, they rejoice. It’s the first piece of the puzzle they’re trying to put together – that will lead them to your bank account and to payday.

People may think they’re completely savvy protecting themselves when online. Somehow, they don’t realize what they’re doing every time they post something about themselves on Facebook or MySpace. They would never disclose these things in the real world. When online, it’s a completely different matter. Some people announce their holiday plans on Twitter or Facebook. Or they check into some place far from home on Foursquare. That’s all the burglar needs to know to see what kind of window he has. It’s impossible to know how information you post online can come back to haunt you. As they say, Facebook enables more divorces these days than anything else. Ex-spouses keep a close watch on one another’s Facebook pages to see if there is any ammunition at all – any piece of information let slip during an unguarded moment. And they use it in court. And of course, you can bet on it that your employer, current or future, is taking a close look at everything you say. Identity thieves actually are past masters at using what appear to be unrelated bits of information to skewer you. What makes it even worse is that on Facebook and MySpace, there are more than 20 million adults in America who haven’t made any use at all of their privacy settings. Their pages are wide open. And almost everyone seems to have their date of birth for everyone to see on their pages. That’s one important security question that allows people access to many a password right there.

So here’s advice you can use – never put your exact birthday or the place you were born on any social networking sites. Nor should you include your e-mail address, your home address or your phone number. When a thief puts all of this together, he can unearth just about everything about you. Make sure that you activate all those privacy features that the social networking sites give you. You need to stay on top of them and only allow people to view your page whom you really, really know.