The Social posts that ask you what was your favorite teacher’s name, who was your first grade teacher, what was the name of your childhood best friend, what was your first car, what is your favorite color, where do you like to vacation, and so on are looking to obtain personal information.

Those are the same questions asked when setting up your accounts as security questions. You are giving out the answers to your security questions without realizing it. Hackers are setting these up as a forum to collect information about you under the auspices of the “Get to Know Each Other Better Game”. They then build a profile of you from several different data sources. They use this data to hack your accounts or open lines of credit in your name.

Sharing too much information on these sites can compromise your information and privacy and subsequently lead to identity theft.

“Social Hacking” seeks to find victims who are careless with their information. They bait victims into making mistakes, gaining access by impersonating an authority. Vigilance is the key to preventing identity theft through social hacking. Here are some precautions you can take to make sure it doesn’t happen to you:

• Make sure you know everyone you accept on Facebook or any other social media site
• Don’t log in with Facebook or other social media accounts on external websites unless you trust the source
• Always check that HTTPS certificates are trusted and belong to the appropriate entity
• Remove old unused apps from your social media accounts.

Social media companies benefit from collecting and selling as much personal data about you as possible, so you can’t depend on them for protection. Most of this data is used for targeted advertising, but in the wrong hands, that data builds a foundation for identity theft.

A Message from the Port Hueneme Police Department

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