The wealth of data on social media platforms like Facebook is a gift to cyber criminals

It isn’t just data from hacks and breaches that can give a criminal enough information to scam you; it can also be the wealth of data on social media platforms like Facebook that they use as well.

Sometimes, for a person to become a victim of fraud or identity theft, it can come down to a case of a cyber-criminal being able to obtain enough information about a person from various sources. One source could be from a hack or breach – which could from large-scale breaches such as telecommunications providers or dating websites. This can then be combined with another data source which we willingly put out there on the internet for all to see… On social media sites for example.

If your email address is stolen from a hack, you may not be too concerned if it’s “just” your email address and name. But, if a fraudster was able to find your online social media profiles on things like Facebook and Twitter through your email address and/or name, they could instantly have a wealth of data about you that they could, and most likely would, use to eventually scam you.

Your Facebook profile may reveal where you live, where you work, where you go on holidays, etc.

It can be enough to get a good understanding about you and allow the cyber-criminal to harvest enough information to build a profile on you for the purposes of a scam.

Combine that with more data involved from other hacks, and a criminal could reset your password for an account by getting your mother’s maiden name from your Facebook family and relatives listings, and eventually gain access to online accounts.

If your email is listed on a particular company’s hack, criminals can find out that you have an account on that platform. All they need to do now is fill in the blanks and they could do some real damage.

The point here really is the fact that the constant number of hacks that are happening is revealing more and more data about more and more people. Combining this with the data that’s already out there can be enough to lead to someone becoming the victim of identity theft or fraud.

We all must be careful what we share about ourselves online!

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