Facebook Challenges Could be Making You Susceptible to Scammers
Have you seen people sharing photos of their first car on Facebook? What about those seemingly innocent quizzes asking people "10 places you've lived." These types of things may seem harmless, but you could accidentally be giving your information to scammers.
Scammers are always looking for a way to gather information on people, and by participating and openly posting this information, you could be answer security questions for them. Have you ever signed up for an online account and had to put in a security question? Common security questions are things like "what's your mother's maiden name?" "What was your first car?" "Where did you go to school?" Questions like that make it easier for scammers to access your accounts and with these "challenges" you've given them a piece to the puzzle.
Taylor County Sheriff's Office in Iowa recently went viral after posting about the dangers of these seemingly innocent quizzes on Facebook.
Lately, we have noticed a lot of folks doing those challenges and questionnaires on Facebook that encourage you to post information about your personal life.
Two of the most recent ones are, "Share a picture of every car you have ever owned," or "Share the last ten cities you have lived in." These posts seem fun as it takes you and others on a trip down memory lane.
However, you are just sharing information about yourself that could help others gain access to your personal information. One of the most common security questions is, "What was your first vehicle?"
Other challenges and questionnaires ask the maiden name of your mother, where you attended school, or where you were born. All of these questions could potentially be asked to identify yourself to gain access to your email, online banking, etc.
As fun as these challenges/questionnaires may seem, we encourage you not to participate and protect your personal information. And be especially wary of posts which ask you to copy and paste the post. Doing so allows the original posters to look at the accounts of everyone who copied and pasted their information.
It's tempting to play these games when we have so much time on our hands, but hackers are sometimes using these tricks to learn your information. Don't make it easy for them.
Be safe, and be smart about what you post online. While these challenges may seem fun and harmless, make sure you aren't giving information out that could end up in the hands of bad people.
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