Social Networking and Identity Theft - Do Not Be the Next Target
Social networking is like the hottest thing in the World Wide Web.
Nowadays, almost everyone who uses the computer and internet is a member of at least one, two or more social networking site.
As a matter of fact, more and more people are getting addicted to it.
However, what most people do not realize is the danger of being too active on social portal sites.
Identity theft done via social sites are steadily rising.
Most identity thieves have realized the potential of these social networking sites to perpetuate their crime without the users even knowing that their identity is in fact, being stolen.
They have adopted a new mechanism via social networking sites which makes stealing identity a lot easier.
Once these identity thieves gain access to your personal information, the sky is perhaps that only limit on the things that they can do with it.
Identity thieves can drain your bank account, ruin your credit status, and take on huge loans and practically anything that can severely damage your finances.
What's worse is that identity theft is initiated with one innocent communication through a social networking site.
In order for you to better understand the extent to which identity theft is perpetuated using social networking sites, read on: According to statistics, one third of the members of various social sites like Facebook, LinkedIn, Twitter and MySpace have at least, three pieces of sensitive information posted in their pages which makes it easy for identity thieves to steal their identity easily.
This information includes your full name, date of birth, and addresses.
Other information that is also posted which can be used for potential identity theft includes phone numbers, names of patents and even names of your children.
If this information is put together, they can form a very powerful tool for each and every identity theft to use against you.
Another interesting fact is that on a poll done on various social networking site users, 80% of them said that they are truly concerned about their online privacy.
However, only a good 40% have a functional knowledge about what the privacy settings really means.
The remaining percentage of people is also not aware on who views their site and thus, their personal information.
This statistics may be very glaring and scary.
If users would only know how much risk they are exposing themselves into in posting these types of information on their social networking pages.
Of course, you can evade identity theft even if you are addicted to social portal sites.
You can always filter the personal information that you post on your pages.
You have to remember that as they are social networking sites, your personal information can also be viewed by other people, other than your friends.
Your full name, birthday and complete address may seem harmless information but they can invite a lot of identity thieves to pounce on you when you're in the least prepared.
Nowadays, almost everyone who uses the computer and internet is a member of at least one, two or more social networking site.
As a matter of fact, more and more people are getting addicted to it.
However, what most people do not realize is the danger of being too active on social portal sites.
Identity theft done via social sites are steadily rising.
Most identity thieves have realized the potential of these social networking sites to perpetuate their crime without the users even knowing that their identity is in fact, being stolen.
They have adopted a new mechanism via social networking sites which makes stealing identity a lot easier.
Once these identity thieves gain access to your personal information, the sky is perhaps that only limit on the things that they can do with it.
Identity thieves can drain your bank account, ruin your credit status, and take on huge loans and practically anything that can severely damage your finances.
What's worse is that identity theft is initiated with one innocent communication through a social networking site.
In order for you to better understand the extent to which identity theft is perpetuated using social networking sites, read on: According to statistics, one third of the members of various social sites like Facebook, LinkedIn, Twitter and MySpace have at least, three pieces of sensitive information posted in their pages which makes it easy for identity thieves to steal their identity easily.
This information includes your full name, date of birth, and addresses.
Other information that is also posted which can be used for potential identity theft includes phone numbers, names of patents and even names of your children.
If this information is put together, they can form a very powerful tool for each and every identity theft to use against you.
Another interesting fact is that on a poll done on various social networking site users, 80% of them said that they are truly concerned about their online privacy.
However, only a good 40% have a functional knowledge about what the privacy settings really means.
The remaining percentage of people is also not aware on who views their site and thus, their personal information.
This statistics may be very glaring and scary.
If users would only know how much risk they are exposing themselves into in posting these types of information on their social networking pages.
Of course, you can evade identity theft even if you are addicted to social portal sites.
You can always filter the personal information that you post on your pages.
You have to remember that as they are social networking sites, your personal information can also be viewed by other people, other than your friends.
Your full name, birthday and complete address may seem harmless information but they can invite a lot of identity thieves to pounce on you when you're in the least prepared.
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