Guard Yourself Against Identity Theft on Social Networks

08:14 AM CST on Monday, December 8, 2008
By PAMELA YIP / The Dallas Morning News pyip@dallasnews.com

The next source of identity theft may be social networking Web sites.

"There's a growing problem, and the risks are increasing," said Scott Mitic, chief executive of TrustedID, which has identity-theft protection products for consumers and businesses.

Officials of the Federal Trade Commission, which enforces identity theft laws, said they know of no ID theft cases that have arisen from social networking sites, but you can't be too careful.

Thieves are constantly searching for new ways to get you to divulge any sliver of personal information so they can tap into your wallet.

And social networking sites such as MySpace and Facebook are becoming a "growing pool of valuable information that at some point thieves may consider more valuable than a credit report," Mr. Mitic said.

For example, most of us use facts associated with our lives as user words or passwords, and thieves are learning they can mine these facts from social networking sites.
"I know most Americans who, if they have pets, that's usually their password," Mr. Mitic said. "The information that may seem innocuous to share may have real value to individuals with criminal minds."

Social networking sites enable people to freely express themselves in a way that may cause them to unwittingly drop morsels of information that criminals can extract to steal their identity.

Here's how it might work:

Your profile says that you live in Texas, you were born in Dallas, your beloved pet's name is Max and that you like to spend time with your parents, Dick and Jane.

It also says that today you're venting your anger at your bank – Bank XYZ – because it's been slow to resolve a problem with your account.

Now criminals know the name of your bank, the name of your pet and your mother's name. They will seek to learn your mother's maiden name, which is often used as a security question on bank Web sites.

Here are some tips to protect yourself online. You've heard them before, but they're particularly important for social networking sites because the information you post can be accessed by others:

•Never post sensitive personal data, such as your Social Security number, driver's license number and bank account numbers.
That includes your hometown, mother's maiden name, your date of birth, your high school, the hospital or city in which your were born and your favorite color.
"There are all of these secret-password answer questions," Mr. Mitic said.

•Avoid telling everyone your physical location and what you're doing at the very moment, especially if you're away from home. That's an invitation for someone to burglarize your home.

•Manage privacy controls on social networks. Set your profile to "Private" to prevent uninvited people from viewing your personal information.

•Don't make your password easy to guess.

•Only allow people you know to view your personal profile. Be careful about allowing strangers to view your profile because people aren't always who they say they are.
Officials of social networking site Facebook said they give users tools to protect themselves.

"Facebook users' profiles are by default accessible only to confirmed friends and others in a given network, and we've put in place additional protections for more sensitive information like phone number, e-mail, and home address," said spokesman Simon Axten. "Users can control access to information as they see fit using the extensive and particular settings we offer."

Users of MySpace also can control how visitors and other MySpace members communicate with them by controlling their account settings.

It reminds users that their personal profile and MySpace forums are public spaces and advises users to not post sensitive personal information.

Many of you will see this advice and say it's unrealistic because I'm practically muzzling you. But you have to decide how much information you want to share.

"How safe do you want to be?" Mr. Mitic said. "How risky a lifestyle do you want to live? We live in a world where it can be dangerous to publicly expose personal information about yourself. If you want to live a safer life, you need to be more protective of your information."

Bottom line: Have fun but be safe.

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Let us help you with your identity theft protection needs. We provide monitoring and restoration benefits to all our members. For more information, visit www.mplss.com or call our office toll free at (800) 306-3063. Happy holidays to all of you!!

Mel Rapozo
Certified Identity Theft Risk Management Specialist
M&P Legal Support Services, LLC