HONOLULU (HawaiiNewsNow) – You may already know that it’s not a good idea to share too much on social media. Then you find yourself answering one of these lists of questions posted by one of your friends.
The other day I came across one who said it was “National Middle Name Day” and put my middle name in the comments.
This one goes around every few months. There are others, telling us the name of your favorite teacher or pet or what car you drove in high school. They look harmless.
While your friends may not find everything very interesting, there are scammers and hackers who like nothing more than to see you answer questions.
Why? As they constantly scour the web and social media, looking for information that they can use to target victims. Here is an example of how this type of over-sharing can be used against you:
When you sign up for a new bank account, credit card company, Netflix or something else, you may be asked to choose a password reset question and answer.
Registering a New Home Security Camera I was asked to answer one of these recovery questions and was given a few to choose from. At least half a dozen of these options were questions I had seen in Facebook question posts.
If a digital fraudster chooses to target you, he or she can log in to Facebook, find your profile, and scrap any information you post publicly. Armed with enough information from Facebook alone, they can potentially reset these account passwords using the answers you gave in comments or in a post.
Also, think about all the other information you have posted on Facebook, such as your phone number and date of birth. If your family members are listed in your “About” section, the hacker can find your mother’s maiden name, which is very useful information when resetting passwords as well as identity theft.
If you can’t help posting these questions and answers on Facebook, make sure you share the information only with friends, not publicly. If your answer is shared publicly, anyone can see it, whether you know it or not. Even if they are not on Facebook, they can still see your public posts.
Here’s another idea: A lie. When you sign up for a new account and they ask for the answer to one of these questions: Instead of giving your first grade teacher a name, enter your second grade teacher’s name. Instead of the color of your first car, enter the color of your second car or your favorite or at least favorite color.
Of course, the chances of becoming a target are slim, but cyber villains are constantly looking for victims. Their full-time job is to hack into online accounts and they always gather information from as many resources as they can find. Social media is one of the first places they check.
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