The emergence of social networking sites over the last few years has been nothing short of a phenomenon but there are risks associated with living your life online and especially giving out confidential and potentially damaging information about yourself, your family, your possessions and your social life.
The only reason which we have specifically mentioned Facebook is the fact that it is by far and away the most popular social networking site in the world and perfectly illustrates the potential problems for all social networking sites.
Even the slightest of glimpses at the vast majority of Facebook pages will potentially show the person’s date of birth, place of birth, telephone numbers and family members. Many people do not realise that they are potentially making themselves the victims of ID theft by literally giving crooks all the information they need to know to apply for duplicate bank cards, passports and a whole range of other very personal identification documents.
So next time you are looking at Facebook why not check it out from a “crooks” point of view and look at exactly what information is available on your page and how they could use this. Be careful what you show on your Facebook page, be careful what photographs you show and ultimately do not tell the crooks where you are every second of every day!
While there is no doubt there are fun and games to be had with regards to Facebook and the many applications available, one of the more popular is the location application which literally allows you to post onto your Facebook exactly where you are. However, if you were looking at potentially burgling a house then all you need to do is look at a person’s specific Facebook page and see where they are at many different times of the day.
Do you really want everybody to know where you are? Do you really trust all of your “Facebook friends”?
While there is no doubt there are many people who would like to keep in touch with friends and family via Facebook this needs to be done in a correct and a sensible fashion. Do not give away personal details such as your date of birth, place of birth, etc and try not to let everybody know where you are every second of every day. These simple snippets of information can, when collected together, bring about a whole new profile for a potential identity theft victim.
It is no surprise to see that identity theft insurance has increased in popularity over the last few years as more and more people look to buy online, more and more people become concerned about their financial safety and the online crooks become ever more sophisticated in their working practices. For just a few pounds a month you can literally cover any costs, any loss of earnings and potentially put yourself in line for a compensation payment should you become the victim of ID theft in the future.
Be warned that the financial institutions of today, such as banks and credit card companies, may well be taking on the risk of ID theft insurance at the moment but this will not continue forever.
