Tuesday, April 20, 2010

Posting your birthday on Facebook could result in Identity Theft

Think twice before posting your birth date on Facebook or other social networking sites. According to Information Week, doing so could help identity thieves predict your Social Security number.

Online information about your date of birth and place of birth could allow identity thieves to guess your Social Security number, according to a Carnegie Mellon report. Its findings suggest that Social Security numbers can be predicted using basic demographic data gleaned from government data sources, commercial databases, voter registration lists, or online social networks.

Knowing a person’s Social Security number (SSN), name, and date of birth is typically enough to allow an identity thief to impersonate that person for the purpose of various kinds of fraud.

Researchers estimate that 10 million American residents publish their birthdays in online profiles, or provide enough information for their birthdays to be guessed.

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