Quizzes circulating on Facebook could help hackers compromise your accounts
IDAHO FALL, Idaho (KIFI/KIDK) - Many of us are passing our stay-home time at home with what seems to be harmless game trends on Facebook.
"What you're not understanding is the questions that they're asking are opening you up to have your data mined and putting your personal and financial information at risk," said Jeremy Johnson with the Better Business Bureau.
Games and quizzes circulating through Facebook encourage users to post potentially sensitive information about them. They ask questions about every city they've lived in, or for a high school prom picture including the year and high school name, or a list of their favorite things. It all could be used by hackers to access other personal accounts their steal their identity according to the BBB.
"One thing that you definitely want to keep in mind is that the more personal information you put out on social media, that information a lot of times, no matter how secure your settings are, can be accessed," Johnson said.
So that harmless fun may undermine our profiles no matter how secure we may think they are. The BBB says you want to be skeptical, adjust your privacy settings, remove personal details from your profile, don't give answers to common security questions and monitor your friend requests.
"Your security settings and make sure they're all set, secure, and that you feel comfortable with what boxes are checked in what aren't," Johnson said.
If you've already posted your information on a questionable site, there are a few things the BBB recommends you do immediately.
"If you've already done this, and you feel like you've put yourself at risk of fraud, don't only change your privacy settings on Facebook or social media, also go into your bank accounts and maybe change your questions, change your password, just to make sure you've secured things on both sides," Jeremy said.
