PPE for your identity

In these trying times of Covid-19, we have learned more than our fair share about PPE (Personal Protection Equipment).  However, PPE also needs to apply to those of your surfing online while being at home.  Lets call our acronym SPARK (Social Protection Against Releasing Knowledge).  These is not a real term but something I just made. SPARK is my initiative to help you stop and think. Since it’s been a very long time since i have written a new blog I wanted to touch base on what I see all the time on social media.  This scam must be known to all that use Facebook, Twitter, or any platform that asks you to answer silly questions.  If you have ever used Facebook you are well aware of the little games that ask questions and have you post your information for a chuckle.  All you need to do is match your birth month for your first name and birth year for the last name.  These can be disguised as different types of naming games, such as what dog are you, what rock band are you, or any other silly game that seems fun and harmless.  Since we are all stuck inside working and trying to entertain ourselves, these games seem fun and an easy way to kill some time while entertaining.   These seemingly harmless games are actual ways of stealing your identity.  It’s very easy at this point because you are providing them with more than half of the information they need to steal your identity.  So by using your birth information they can easily try and retrieve passwords.  It’s more than just that information.  They are asking you for all sorts of information that seems perfectly harmless but in reality you are providing them with information that would be asked by any site to retrieve your password.  So they have your full name from posting, now they have your birth month and year.  The game continues on with different versions and it seems like it’s a different provider each time.  All the while they are building a profile of you.  Your name, favorite holiday, vegetable, fruit, desert… etc.

Other games ask you what celebrity do you look like.  Then they have you post a picture of yourself and they  drop some celebrity in there.  So now they have a picture to put with the profile. There are even more games out there that want to tell you what would your obituary would read.  Again, all these are designed to grab your information. 

How many people do you know that their facebook account or other account has been compromised?  I bet everyone can at least name 2 people they know personally.  So in the times of being at home, make sure to remain vigilant in these so called fun name games.  Let your friends and family know, these games seem harmless but now you know that’s not exactly true.