As in any kind of prevention plan, there are many steps to take to ensure that you are must less at risk that you might be if you didn’t take those steps.  The same, of course, is true when it comes to protecting yourself from identity theft.  Because of its social atmosphere, many people don’t associate their social networking site with breeding grounds for potential thieves, but like anyplace else on the world where one person meets another, there is always a chance that something is going to happen and someone is going to end up a victim.  So in addition to making sure that you don’t give out too much information in your handle, that you don’t accept the site’s recommendation for privacy, you don’t post any information online you don’t want everyone to know and to have access to forever, and not accepting friend requests from people you don’t know, there are some additional steps to take in order to ensure the safety of your identity.  Make sure the requests you receive from people are actually from those people.  Thieves will go to any lengths to see that their plans are carried out and it certainly isn’t a stretch to think that they would pose as someone you know to get something from you.  So if it truly is a friend, the shoot them an email or give them a call or at the very least, scour their profile to make sure that it is the very person they claim to be.  Be wary of “friends”  that have a super bare bones profile as well.  Simply supplying the very basic of information is way for potential thieves to set up a net to catch anyone who isn’t on their toes and doesn’t know what to look for.  Be proactive and involved in who you are connecting yourself with online.  Treat it as you would any other social interaction and guard yourself and your information.

This entry was posted on Wednesday, May 19th, 2010 at 7:57 am and is filed under Uncategorized. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.