Awareness in Using Social Media
It is a must to have awareness in using social media online. This is because social media can either make you or destroy you. Internet may be a virtual world but behind every computer or phone screen is a real person that may either bless you or compromise you. Now, being aware means being careful in everything that we do online because the things we do always have consequences. Before clicking or giving away information that are sensitive to our identity it is a must to validate the reason for doing it. The world today has become different because we need to be security conscious.
Photos visually confirms identity
Posting of photos and sharing them to family and friends online has become a habit for most people. This may seem to be a harmless practice in using social media but we should be security conscious in this regard. Photos visually define us and confirms our identity, which is why we need to protect our identity by minimizing the photos that we share or post, if possible filter them in just sharing it with people well known to us or are closely related to us, although this is not a guarantee that what you share cannot leak to people who are fraudulent in everything, being careful is key.
There are many ways where our photos can be used in fraudulent transactions. Think about it if hackers or scam artists are able to get access to your photos and use them without you knowing it. Photos can be used to misrepresent anyone. Scam artists can use photos of other people and claim it to be them hiding their real identity behind the photos they use to avoid being apprehended, thus they make fictitious identities at the expense of people whose photos they use. Remember that photos being posted to social networking sites are publicly accessible aside from those that are filtered privately or shared only to significant connections.
Take note also that even photos that are filtered privately can and may be accessed by strangers. There are many ways whereby this can happen, like for example a relative or close friend connected to you in a particular social networking site uses a public computer and forgot to logout of his or her social networking account, the next person to use the computer he or she used will have access to your photos using the account of the person significantly connected to you. Awareness in using social media in this case is very vital that is why it is a must to be aware of the photos you post or share.
Posting photos depicting outdoor activities and fewer formalities are way better than to post photos that can be processed or edited to be used by scammers to make fictitious Identities online. However, if you have security issues other than fraudulent identity theft like if you have a threat on your life it is better that you not share your photos in social media at all. This is because the gadgets that are used in uploading in social media can be used as locator that can expose your real time location.
Be Aware of the Information you are Posting in Social Media
Basic information regarding your identity is also something that requires filtering, or perhaps if it is possible to refrain from posting it, the better. You see, information such as your complete name, address, phone number, birth date and Identification number are data that can be used by scammers or identity thieves online. Such are basic information that can be used to claim money sent via money transfer service providers. Fraudulent individuals can also use your stolen identity in their schemes online.
Not all people are taking things like this seriously failing to realize that this will cause big problems if not contained. Imagine someone using your identity to fool other people online. Consequently you will be taking blame from people who were fooled by scammers using your identity.
Scammers have different methods obtaining information about you which they would gladly use in their schemes. One, is through the information that you provide in your social networking sites, you may filter them but it is not a guarantee that it will be secured. Another way is through a scam email asking you to reply with your basic information to claim a particular prize, or that you have won a random lottery that selected your email address. There are also scam sites offering you to earn money by providing them such basic information about you and other things related to you.
So you see there are a lot of things that you need to take into consideration when posting your personal details on social networking sites. Your level of awareness should focus more on security to protect your identity.
Your awareness in using social media should enable you to avoid making posts that can directly give vital information that enables others to point at your identity. You must verify a site requiring your basic information if it is a legitimate site that is honest in doing business online. It is convenient to validate sites because there are people who give feedback online all you need to do is check them. You will know scam sites by the appearance of their websites. They would usually offer you something that can boost your finances by joining their program for free, but at the end of the day you just filled out forms which results to nothing.
You can avoid being a victim by using aliases if you suspect a site of being a scam, that way you will at least prevent your identity of being stolen. Identity theft is common today, that is why we need to be aware when using social media because we might be posting information that may compromise our identity. These things can be avoided or prevented we just need to be careful and to be aware each time we hit the save button.
