How much personal information do you reveal on your blog?
There are no specific rules as to the things that you can or cannot share on your personal web site or profile pages but you should be mindful of the fact that there are unscrupulous individuals who scrape whatever info they can get online then use it for their monetary and other personal gains.
FB Impersonation
I had a friend who was a victim of impersonation on Facebook. The impersonator even posted some pics from her real FB accounts and shared some quotes and activities that she published on her account to the fake profile’s feeds. People who are aware of her activities really thought that it was her (yeah, I added the fake account too and didn’t know the difference).
Imagine her surprise when she learned that many people were already angry with her because “she” borrowed money from them then insulted and cursed them when it’s time to pay. Scary, huh? The impersonators didn’t only steal her identity but damaged her credibility and estranged her from her friends.
Identity Theft on Children
Be extra careful when sharing information about your children online. I once read a blog post stating the exact birthday of her daughter (including the exact time) as well as the full name. Children’s identities are attractive to identity thieves because they still don’t have a credit history and it will take years before they can find out that their identities were stolen.
More Info on Identity Theft
Blogs and online sites are not only the possible sources of information about you. Your trash might be someone else’s gold so be sure to shred bank statements, credit card statements, canceled checks, or pre-approved credit card offers first. Thieves can file to have your address changed so all of your mail will be sent to their home to gain access to financial and personal information or use these stuff for other purposes.
Always be on the lookout for scams. Be smart and learn as much as you can about identity theft so you can avoid being the next victim. If you think it will help you have a better peace of mind, get the services of companies that offer identity theft protection.
I got a little paranoid upon reading this post. But better to be such and be safe, than be sorry right? Thanks for posting this.
you’re right mia. better be safe than sorry. i can’t understand why other people can afford to do that and prey on innocent people… oh well…
Very informative post, She. I haven’t had problems with my personal accounts as of yet but had two of my blogs hacked. However, there’s actually a great implication once we wear our hearts on our sleeves online, not only on the personal accounts. We have to draw the line how personal we get in our posts.
I had a very bad experience about this in the past. My other blog http://www.scottzprincess.net used to be a blog for me and my Prince coz it was born when we finally consented to be in a gf-bf relationship. One devious personality however took the infos she got from my blog and used it to attack me below the belt. It;s here in my friend’s blog: http://lermzpascoe.com/?p=2101
After that incident, I got very careful on how much infos I divulge at the blog. Lesson learned indeed!
thanks for the information sis. indeed, we need to be careful about who we connect with to avoid becoming one of the victims of identity theft.
parang sapol ako sa lahat ng sinabi mo sis..hehehe..
ako mostly name lang..usually i don’t give my last name..
korek talaga..buti ako haters lang..la namang money matters..