In an interview, a former credit card thief talks about some of the scams he used to run on unwary consumers. It's got some good takeaways for protecting yourself, like the one where you make up fake answers to security questions. With all the info that can be found online now some of these security questions aren't that hard to figure out. So instead of putting down the real answer to "What's your mother's maiden name?" put down "unicorn princess."
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2 comments:
This is a great tip. I was going through a particularly nasty divorce and I found out who here boyfriend was by hacking her phone records and bank accounts. It was easy to do because I obviously knew the answers to her security questions.
I take this as common sense. If you truly are concerned about your safety on the internet, you should know better than to put real information out there, much less information that could be tracked, like the mother's maiden name or the city you were born in.
I usually make up my own question if possible. If I can't, I do what was suggested here and make up something.
I look at folks on sites such as Facebook and cannot believe how many people show their entire birthdate on their profiles!
Are you kidding me? That's an easy hack!. They have your full name, your birthdate, where you were born, where you went to school, who your siblings are, who you're married to, etc, etc, etc.
I've contacted a few of the friends of mine and brought this to their attention and it seems they just don't get it!
Pay attention people!
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