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Information Technology and Communication Systems Education

Internet Technology | Social Media Platform Services

3 things you should never share on the social media platform

How social media platforms services have influenced the way we share information online

Social media platforms services have influenced the way we share information today. Gone are the days when providing intimate personal details in a public domain seemed immaterial. Be hinted that anything you share on social media provides other users something to ruminate about no matter how isolated you think the idea or data is.

Social media platform services have so desensitized us to the point that we do not deem posting our personal data on them harmless anymore. For instance, if you open your Facebook account and scroll down the news feed section, you will find cute photos of your kids online, your photos revealing with your new car or house on the background, ‘’I have had my second shot COVID-19 vaccine’’ sticker, your health struggles, and other private and confidential information that are not meant for the public eye posted online with hundreds of people — and countless prying eyes beyond that. Such divulgence of personal information is to me like an open invitation to social media fraudsters

Scammers, hackers, and cybercriminals are trying to gather every fragment of information online on social media platforms and use it not only to scam you and steal your identity but also your money or properties.

So how can you become a smart social media user? Avoid these 5 common things you are probably guilty of oversharing henceforth.

1. Never share photos of your kids or grandchildren on the social media platform

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Facebook Photo of a child. Photo credit: Facebook Group

Social media users are in the habit of posting all sorts of photos of their kids fully locking down privacy settings of their accounts or freezing the kids’ credits realizing that there’s other identifying information of their kids they have into the medium that could come back to haunt them one day.

To avoid being scammed on social media followed by identity theft, never share photos of your children or grandchildren, be it of a birthday party, participation in a school activity, camping or tour, whatever. In as much as it is quite tempting to document your children or grandchildren exploits or striving to be their best — and then, of course, to show them off to your relatives and virtual friends, keep in mind that there are crooked scammers and identity thieves parading themselves as members of your inner circle are lying in wait to pounce at the right time.

More than one million kids are victims of scams and identity theft each year and this kind of cybercrime can go under the radar for years, only noticeable to you a lot of damage has been done to his financial status.

2. Never share photos of the exterior of your brand new house or new car on social media

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Facebook Photo of a house. Photo credit: Selling With Wilson Anthony

Never share photos of the exterior of your brand new house or new car online. Taking photos of your new dream car or house in excitement posting it on Facebook or other Social Media sites can backfire.

The risk lies in handing dogged scammers access to your address or license plate or examining the photos for other related information that provides more pieces to the identity puzzle. Posing as a service provider, they can also easily run scams on you by identifying the needs of a new homeowner.

Hackers who specialize in identifying social media account vulnerabilities can tactically siphon personal data, including payment information, or forward phishing links spiked with malware.

With the knowledge of your house ownership, hackers can disguise themselves as home improvement service contractors or agents or even as a furniture company in order to find an avenue to launch their planned cyber-attacks.

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3. Never post images of your COVID-19 vaccination card

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COVID-19 Vaccination Card. Image credit: 10tv.com

The third thing you must not post or share online which might become a social media scam is your COVID-19 vaccination card.

One of the online contents trending on social media about the pandemic has produced is users’ proudly and publicly boast about and even post about is their COVID-19 vaccination card. Obscure your date of birth and patient number before sharing your COVID-19 vaccination still doesn’t mean you have hidden all information about yourself.

You can be scammed by revealing information about the date you were vaccinated, where you were vaccinated, and with which vaccine reveals a lot of information.

Internet fraud works in many ways. Fraudsters might tease personal information out of you with fake “vaccine surveys” or email you bogus information about the so-called side effects of your particular vaccine. You might click on the link and suddenly put malware on your computer or turn it into a keystroke logging device.

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