June 27, 2023
As you gear up for the summer months, your social media profiles are no doubt about to fill up with photos and captions of the many adventures awaiting you. Before you post that camping pic or review your best summer reads, use these tips to make sure that you aren’t risking your identity or security when using social media:
| Access to your email account | Never provide your password to your email account to a social medial site. Many fraudulent sites, services, and apps will pretend to offer email enhancements to get access to your accounts. |
| Your work credentials | Never provide a work-associated email address to a social network, especially when signing up. Consider creating a new email address strictly to connect with your social networking profiles. |
| Your precise date of birth, especially in combination with your place of birth | Identity thieves know how to use this information to steal your identity. If you are required to give a birthday, choose a nearby date instead. |
| Your browsing history | It is a good practice to delete cookies when you leave a social networking site. Even if you aren’t on a social network, cookies can be used to track your activities on you web. |
| Vacation Plans | When posting about vacation plans don’t share the dates you will be away. Criminals try to take advantage of when people are away from their homes, so don’t give them that information. |
| Public posts with your address, phone number, or email address | Don’t post these on a social network profile or status update. Scam artists and marketing companies are looking for this kind of information. If you choose to post any of these, use privacy settings to restrict it to approved contacts. |
| Compromising, sensitive, embarrassing, or inflammatory pictures or posts | Remember that people not in the intended audience might eventually see whatever goes on a network. Once it is on the Internet, you have lost control – it cannot be totally deleted |
| Money | Be wary of requests for money, even if they are from your contacts. If a contact’s account is compromised, a scam artist may use his or her name to attempt to defraud others through bogus money requests. |
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