SOCIAL MEDIA…practically everyone uses some form or another. In a world in which most everyone is so busy social media helps those who use it stay in touch with great ease with their family, friends, co-workers, schoolmates,former schoolmates, long lost acquaintances or business customers &/or contacts via a quick post to Facebook, MySpace, or Twitter or the various other social media networks. These sites can be a wonderful tool in which to maintain regular contact with those you care about in a day and age when letters and phone calls take “just too much time” or are inconvenient. In addition you can find out things about your friends,family, and customers that may have not known previously or haven’t been privy to due to your very busy life.
For example your friend Suzy posts that she just bought her first Harley (suddenly has money to spend)and posts a pic of the new sled. You may never have known that she always wanted to ride and find it fun and interesting that a picture of Tinkerbell (she likes fairy tales) is painted on the purple gas tank (probably her favorite color). When you read your retired (doesn’t have to work) recently widowed (no man in the house) mother’s post stating that she is lonely in her big ole house (old lady all alone) and rarely receives company (nobody to get in the way) it may inspire you to pay a visit, send a text, make a call or at least post a loving message on her “wall” telling her how much she is valued, loved and missed. Or maybe your high school friend always post selfies with tags of herself working, shopping or hanging out with friends (divulges locations, times and habits) makes you feel connected by at least being able to see where she is at, who she is with and what she is doing.
Social media is not only a useful tool for you, your family and friends or your business but also for those that want to prey upon you. Any person meaning you harm from an old “psycho” love to a predatory criminal or identity thief can find out where you work, live, and hang out. Criminals and predators can also find out your birth date, the kind of car you drive, private email address, phone number, job history, education history, family members names and pet’s names as well as ascertain your favorite food, favorite color, favorite musical artist, favorite video game, favorite movie, favorite actor or actress or favorite hobby just by looking at your photos and posts. Not surprising is that all of the aforementioned information are the answers to every security question asked by all banks, credit card companies and employer websites along with a myriad of other web based resources. Protection of this kind of detailed information is imperative in light of the statistics provided by the Bureau of Justice noting that in 2014 17.6 million people were victims of identity theft.
Below is a list of tips and instructions to help you avoid identity theft and predatory criminals when it comes to social media:
1. MANAGE YOUR FRIENDS LIST DILIGENTLY – regularly review your “friends” for those you have regular contact with, know well or are trustworthy family members. Eliminate friends and family members whose posts are inappropriate or offensive or have recently been arrested for a drug related, violent, or financial crime. These persons are morally & socially deficient or desperate and dangerous and are an threat to your well being and your good-standing reputation.
2. REVIEW YOUR “FRIENDS” FRIENDS LIST – you might have to review a 700 member friend list but if think you are safe by effectively monitoring your friends’ post and pics that is not necessarily the case. You cannot control what your friends’ post, what they share or who they share info with. Always check your friends’ friends list. Upon checking you may find that they are associating with one of your violent or immoral exes, unsavory persons, drug dealers, addicts or criminals. Their friends can potentially access your information through them.
3. KEEP YOUR PERSONAL INFORMATION PERSONAL – upon signing up many sites ask you for a myriad of info like your full date of birth, address, personal email address, sex, race and phone number. Many sites like Facebook allow you to only provide the info to the “site” without it appearing on your page or give you the option to not answer the questions or only give partial info. You can also choose for such info you do provide to only be provided to friends.
4. BE AGGRESSIVE ABOUT YOUR SECURITY SETTINGS– one great thing that has developed from this age of identity theft and cyber crime is social networks’ security settings features. BE AGGRESSIVE. Facebook like other social media sites offers you very specific options to protect the security of what you share, post and upload. You can set your profile to private (friends only) or public (anyone can find you or access or info), you can set a friends only, friends of friends or public for your posts, designate who can post on our wall, be notified if you are tagged in a photo or your name is used in a post, and even designate how each individual photo or video you can be viewed or shared.
5. NEVER DIVULGE PLANS AHEAD OF TIME – never post when you are going on vacation, when your taking a long Saturday ride on the sled, about to leave on a date or outing or that you are going to get home til midnight from work unless you have followed steps 1-4 above and even then be cautious. These kinds of announcements give criminals the the information and opportunity to rob you while your gone or assault you as your coming home.
A persons credit rating is something is that takes a voluminous amount of effort, time and dedication to repair once it is damaged. And your personal safety has no price. Social media can be a wonderful tool but it can also be the source of your worst nightmare. Be careful, be safe, be knowledgeable but most of all be aware and alert!