We are in an age now where we can be completely connected to whatever’s going on in the world or socially connected to millions of other people. With the amount of devices that connect to the internet, we might wonder is what I do online tracked? Is the information I use online tracked? If I save my credit card information to make the checkout process easier, will someone else have that information? What about my Social Security number? These are all questions that can be answered with Yes! Yes, your information is accessible by other people. But it’s incredibly difficult to access if you do it right. There’s a lot of ways to stay safe online, one is don’t save personal information to the internet like your address, phone number, email address, social security number, drivers license number, credit card number, bank account number and any other personal details.
I’m going to share an experience that happened to me this semester. I was going home from college a couple weeks ago when my phone started ringing with an unknown number. I wondered about not answering but in the end decided to pick up. When I answered the phone I heard a voice with an unfamiliar accent and my first thought was, “I guess this is a scam call,” and I was about to hang up but the guy on the phone said my name and asked if it was me. I told him it was and he said, “Sir, we’ve stopped a package at the Mexican border. Are you expecting a package to be delivered to you from here?” I said, “No.” He said, “Sir, the address on the package is…,” and read off my address with perfect accuracy and then asked, “Is this your address sir?” Normally you don’t give people your address but I was concerned and this sounded serious so I said, “Yes, that’s my address.” He said, “Sir, the reason I’m calling you is because we stopped this package at the Mexican border and found illegal substances in the package. Are you sure you aren’t expecting any packages?” I said, “No I’m not expecting any packages.” He said, “Okay sir. We think this is a case of identity theft.”
At that moment my heart practically stopped and I was thinking, “My identity couldn’t possibly be stolen. I haven’t subscribed to anything suspicious or given my email to any weird websites or my address.” Then he continued on the phone, “Sir, we believe your identity’s been stolen. Sir I’m going to tell you an address.” And he continued to read off an address in Texas. Then he said, “Sir, have you ever heard of this address before?” I said, “No.” He said, “Sir, this is the registered address of a few bank accounts and credit card accounts that are associated with your name and address. Thousands of dollars have been going in and out of these bank accounts. Sir, are you sure you’ve never heard this address before?” I said, “No.” He said, “Sir we believe your identity has been stolen because the U.S. Marshalls have investigated you and found that you don’t have a criminal record so we believe your identity has been stolen.”
The phone went silent and after 30 seconds I hung up.
Since then, I’ve been changing passwords and setting up new email addresses and I’m about to change credit card numbers. Your online information is not safe no matter how safe anyone tells you it is. If it’s online, people can access it. There’s a few videos that explain how to keep your information safe online but the main principle is, Don’t store sensitive information on the internet period!
COMM2400 - Social Media Tools and Strategies 