Have Your Social Habits Opened the Door to Criminals?

It doesn’t take much for cyber-criminals to instill fear and terror in the minds of consumers.

With cyber-crimes and other identity theft related instances taking place, what are you doing to protect your personal and financial identity? If the answer is you’re not quite sure, now is the time to take action before you potentially become the next victim.

So, how do you go about making sure that you’ve got the upper-hand on cyber-criminals and others looking to make your life miserable?

Keep the Locks on Crime

For starters, what you say and do on social media can go a long way in determining whether or not you are setting yourself and/or your family up for crime.

One of the biggest gaffes oftentimes made is blurting out personal information on social media.

From telling the world you are away from home and on vacation, to the likes of putting personal financial details in a post, it just takes one slip-up to ruin the day.

As news reports have shown in recent years, cyber-crimes and identity theft are a booming business not only in the United States, but many other countries as well.

While finding an identity theft protection program like a LifeLock or other such provider certainly can lessen the odds of being attacked, it is also a matter of commonsense to make yourself less vulnerable.

Take a moment and ask yourself if you’ve done any of the following below. If so, make sure not to repeat the same mistake twice.

Three of these include:

• Posted vacation pictures while away from home – It sounds so innocent, but doing this is like putting out an open invitation or leaving your front door unlocked. Most criminals (despite how a pair were portrayed in the classic movie Home Alone) are not stupid. Criminals (both online and off) look for patterns, patterns that can tell them when is the best time to strike. If you’re telling the world on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram etc. that you are away from home for an extended period of time, you are playing with fire. Wait until you return from your trip to showcase the fun you had, making sure that your residence is not unattended;
• Posted financials such as tax refunds – Why would you post personal or business financial information on social media? That is a question many people ask, but too few times do they have a sound answer. Putting such personal data out there on social venues is once again opening the door to potential trouble. An example of this would be sharing or tweeting that you will be receiving a huge tax refund this year. While you likely did not put your direct deposit information in the post, letting cyber-criminals know that you will be getting a healthy sum back from the IRS gives them motivation to try and learn more about you. When they do that, they are one step closer to your personal or business financial world. You may go so far as to post a picture of your tax refund on one or more social pages. While that is not a smart idea, at least have the sense to cover up any bank account info, home address etc. if you feel the need for such a posting;
• Posted collections inside your home – Many individuals have collections they are proud of. Ranging from stamps to sports memorabilia to hundreds of other specialties, you should take pride in assembling such collections. That said do not advertise them all over social media without plenty of precautions. While it is fine to show the collections to family and friends, posting pictures all over social networking sites opens the door to potential cyber-criminals. If a criminal is able to track down your home address, they then know there is a treasure-trove of goodies sitting inside your residence. One way to prevent this from happening is to know all the individuals following you on social media. For example, you can put a lock on your different social accounts, meaning only those you approve of are able to follow you. In doing so, you control which individuals and/or sites have access to your various social activities.

Following these tips and others won’t render you 100 percent safe from cyber-criminals and identity theft thieves, but it will put you much more in control of your social situation.

Photo credit: BigStockPhoto.com

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