INDIANAPOLIS – Facebook quizzes may look harmless enough, but they can become a gateway for identity theft, giving scammers access to information you may not want to share.
Not only can thieves use information gathered from those online quizzes, they may have actually devised them to extract information from users.
You’ve seen them before on social media—short surveys to determine your personality or what your “spirit animal” may be.
One popular one, according to the watchdogs at Scamicide, was “10 Concerts You’ve Seen… and the One That’s Still on Your Bucket List.”
It seems harmless on the surface but consider the kind of information you’re giving out: your music preferences, your approximate age and maybe the part of the country where you live.
It doesn’t sound like much, but to take those quizzes, you grant permission to a third-party application that accesses your Facebook profile.
Sharing your favorite kind of music, food or favorite animal is giving someone specific information that could be used in a phishing email meant to extract even more information about you.
And that’s where things can get worse.
The email could include malware to track your keystrokes or online activity. Suddenly, you're giving up considerably more information about yourself without knowing it.
Another scenario: the information you provided—the year you were born, your favorite movie or TV show or favorite vacation spot—arms scammers with hints about your passwords and security questions.
You certainly wouldn’t want to answer any questions about your mother’s maiden name or the name of your favorite pet, as those are often security questions designed to serve as safeguards for various websites.
Scamicide said the safest thing to do is to simply avoid taking the quizzes when they pop up in your feed. If you can’t stop yourself, adjust your Facebook settings to “friends only” so random people can’t see your answers.
Speaking of Facebook security, it’s also a good idea to rethink how much information you share in your profile, such as your phone number and address.
As for security questions you use on various websites, they don’t have to be actual answers. Maybe your favorite hobby is “chopping onions” or your hometown is the “Land of Oz.”
No one would be able to guess those—just make sure you remember your answers.