SAN ANTONIO — You may be giving away more information than you think on social media. Enough that you put your passwords and a variety of accounts in jeopardy of being hacked.
Social media quizzes appear amusing and harmless.
“We see a quick quiz, you know, one or two questions. We’re more apt to actually answer that quiz, especially if it’s something fun,” said Michael Skiba, known as Dr. Fraud.
“I would say be skeptical,” said Octavio Freire, founder and CEO of Safeguard Cyber.
The quiz’s intent is to collect information that can easily lead to identify theft.
“Certainly, they could be used for good, but there’s a lot of fraud,” Freire said.
Quizzes ask a series of personal questions. You think you are finding out your superhero name or what celebrity you resemble, but sprinkled in are often common questions used for a very specific purpose.
“If they ask you a question of your mother’s maiden name or your pet’s name or what street did you grow up on--common security questions,” said Skiba. “You start answering these. That’s another piece of the puzzle for them to hack your account.”
“Partial information about an individual is out there just by virtue of we had so many breaches the last few years, but they don’t have a complete picture,” Freire said. “So then they use these quizzes to complete the information.”
It can do a lot of damage. It can allow a schemer to steal your identity, impersonate you, or break into your financial or other accounts. Stay safe by staying away from social media quizzes.
“What they’re really doing is phishing for personal information,” Skiba said. “So that’s the risk.”
“So be very, very thoughtful about things such as quizzes and online surveys because it’s hard to determine their origin,” Freire said.
The best answer to any question on social media might just be “no.”
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