3 Surprising Ways Scammers Could Be Getting Your Personal Information

These tricks are more common than you think.

It's amazing how much damage someone can do with just a few pieces of your personal information. They can drain your bank accounts, ruin your credit, and drive lenders to call you at all hours of the day. That's why keeping your personal information safe is crucial to your financial well-being -- and your sanity.

You probably know that you shouldn't write down your passwords where others can find them or log into financial accounts on a public Wi-Fi network. But identity thieves also have trickier ways of obtaining your information. Here's some you may not have thought much about.

1. Oversharing on social media

Social media gives you a platform to share updates about your life with friends and family, but they aren't always the only ones seeing your information. If you have your profile set to public, anyone can see everything that you post. And even if you have it set to private, a skilled hacker could still break in.

You may not realize it, but your accounts could be a treasure trove of personal information. You probably have your birthday listed there. You may have also noted where you attended school and the year you graduated, as well as the town you live in now. If you're friends with your mom, it's probably not even that hard for a thief to work out your mother's maiden name.

Facts like these are commonly used to verify your identity on your bank accounts. By making them readily available, you're making it a lot easier for thieves to impersonate you. And the data backs that up. One Javelin Strategy & Research study found that active social media users had a 46% higher risk of account takeover fraud compared to those who don't use social media as much.

That doesn't mean you have to close all your accounts. But you should make sure you set everything to private and limit how much personal and financial data you share. As an added safety measure, you could avoid using readily available information for your security questions on your financial accounts. For example, rather than listing your mother's maiden name, you could list your grandmother's instead.

2. Online quizzes and surveys

Quizzes promising to tell you which superhero you are or what kind of luck you'll have in 2023 can be an innocuous way to pass the time. But scammers also use them as a tool to extract your personal information. One popular strategy is to ask questions that are also common account security questions, as discussed above.

Identity thieves can use surveys to do the same thing. But some take it a step further, promising payment for your help with a particular survey. They might invite you to submit your contact information or even your bank account information in the hope of receiving payment, but you'll never see a dime. That's why it's best to avoid online quizzes and surveys unless you're confident you're dealing with a legitimate organization who isn't going to use your answers against you.

3. Impersonating a business you work with

Scammers sometimes create fake businesses in an attempt to solicit personal information from unsuspecting marks. But many opt instead to shroud themselves in the authority of an established company or even the federal government. They contact you pretending to be a member of one of these organizations, requesting you either confirm or update some personal data or even accusing you of owing money.

Sometimes, these scams can sound pretty credible, especially when the person calling claims to be from a bank or credit card company you already work with. These imposter scams raked in over $2.33 billion in 2021, according to the Federal Trade Commission (FTC), with a median loss of $1,000 per person.

You might be able to spot these scams just by looking at how the person reaches out to you. The government won't send you a text or call you to tell you that you owe money. In most cases, you'll receive a written notice first.

When in doubt, you shouldn't give out any personal information, no matter how the person pressures you. Don't visit any websites or call any numbers they give you either. Use your own web browser to look up the company's actual website and phone number and then reach out if you're unsure whether the communication you received was legitimate.

Scammers aren't going away. In fact, they're innovating all the time. So make sure you're taking all appropriate steps to protect your financial information. And stay up to date on information about the latest scams to ensure you don't become their next victim. The Federal Trade Commission (FTC) routinely publishes guidance on popular scams, so this is something to keep an eye on.

If you believe you've been a victim of a scam, notify the FTC and your local police department if you believe the thieves were local. Take steps to protect your other financial accounts as well by changing passwords and security questions and notifying the affiliated institutions if you notice anything amiss.