Are Social Media Platforms Giving Ways For Identity Theft?
Social
media platform has emerged as a boon to businesses as well as individual users.
One side where businesses can use social media to gain more business
opportunities, individuals find it a great platform to showcase their talent to
their known ones and others. So, we cannot deny from the fact that social media
is such an advantageous platform for everyone. Though, it accompanies some
drawbacks also in which, identity theft is the biggest drawback. It is noticed
that the cases of identity theft has increased by more than 50% in 2015. These
figures are suggested by Cifas – a fraud prevention service.
What Cifas Has Found While Researching On Identity
Theft Cases?
Cifas
took data from the UK based 261 companies which suggest the imposters are
rapidly getting the personal details of social media users. It claimed that for
these imposters, the social media websites likes LinkedIn, Twitter and Facebook
have become like a main hunting ground from where they can accomplish identity
theft tasks. The data showed the over 148,000 identity theft victims in 2015 in
the UK only; however, in 2014, the number of victims were only 94,500. So, we
can see a nearly 50% rise in identity theft cases on the UK within a year.
Considering
these identity theft cases, it has become quite crucial for individuals to
consider some major steps to eliminate this problem. Individual consciousness
is the only way to survive in the web world where, fraudsters are all around. Let
us help you knowing some solutions to stay protected from such issues.
Stay Alert Against Phishing Websites:
A
phishing site looks quite similar to any other business website; however, it is
just a fake site meant for fetch individual information. Sometimes, they ask
for a user name / password, though it aims to fetch other personal details like
name, address, security number and other sort of information. Therefore, you
have to be vigilant when a website demands for this information: Credit Card
information, License Number of the driver, social security number, Health
Insurance information or ID, Bank Account Number or Home address and contact
number. When you find any site asking for these details, it can be an alert of
a phishing site attack.
Use Of OpenDNS:
Many
people use OpenDNS to increase the speed of their Internet. Though, it is also
advantageous as it works like a solution for content filtering. Being a content
filtering method, it alerts the user when he opens up site which is flagged as
dangerous. This way, it helps users to stay away from phishing sites.
Choose Reputable Online Shopping Sites Only:
Online
shopping sites can be another big source for fraudsters to fetch information
about individuals. Generally, shoppers add up their credit card, personal
information and other details on these sites. So, if you choose any random
online shopping site, then there are high chances for your details to get
leaked or grabbed by some attacker. Thus, it is always good to choose a
reputable online shopping website to get rid of such threats.
Other Instructions To Follow To Protect Yourself From Identity Theft Consequences:
·
Be cautious before
openly publishing any sort of identifying details online.
·
Choose privacy features
that restrict the access of strangers to the social media profile. Also,
evaluate a profile properly before adding any person in your social media
account.
·
Be very cautious about
the post your friends publish relating you; especially, if they s hare any
personal details or activities of you.
·
Your user name should
not include your personal information.
·
Always choose the
strong passwords.
·
Timely update the
firewall, anti-spyware or anti-virus programmes in your system because around
80% cyber-attacks can be eliminated by following organising them.
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