IMer Beware
Warning Symbol
Did you ever have a friend of a friend email you? What about IM? Technology has given us all a great way to meet new people. It has also given scammers a great way to get your information. Just look at this conversation:
SaraSlane84: Hi!
TinMan: Hi?
S: It’s Sara, Maries friend. We met a few weeks ago at that party.
T: Oh yeah. How are you?
S: Great! You?
T: Good. Just got in.
S: Go anywhere fun?
T: Just the movies.
S: You must have a lot of options.
T: Huh.
S: You live in LA, don’t you?
T: No, Brentwood.
S: Oh, sorry. Details are a bit fuzzy. Over tired from job searching all night.
T: Know how you feel. It’s hard to get work even in sales.
S: What do you sell?
T: Pharmaceuticals.
S: Does that mean you have to talk to doctors all day? Must be so intimidating. You must know a lot about medicine.
T: Not really, but I took a few chem. Classes when I was at Brown. That was enough I guess.
Seems innocuous enough, but in the course of that conversation Tim gave out a whole lot of information, while Sara gave almost none. Without hesitation Tim told us:
- The town he lives in.
- What his job is/ and the industry.
- Where he went to college.
It may not seem like much but a person interested in using this to steal your identity could use it as a spring board to get your address and phone number after a few more conversations, and some more innocuous details (like your employers name and your age). That person is ready to take out a credit card in your name.
The moral of the story: Know who you are talking to, or keep it to generic topics.
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