Oversharing on Internet can lead to identity theft

Washington: As Internet is a free virtual world, one cant help but overshare on it, keeping less in mind how it could lead to preposterous consequences, including identity theft.

Netizens tend to share a lot of their personal details including intimate details of travel plans, or what they really think of their boss, for instance. However, such information could potentially pose risk to one`s financial accounts, as pointed by ZDNET writer Zach Whittaker. According to a website, users shouldn`t use the Geolocation Tags feature that could reveal their exact addresses instead of a city, which could easily allow someone to match the Tweets or Instagram pictures with the address and give it to financial companies to verify the identity. Posting a picture of the financial or personal data, like a new driver`s license or credit card, is another way of providing easy access to information that someone could use to socially engineer their way into a user`s bank account. Sites like Airbnb, Airpnp or Lyft encourage people to make money off their existing physical assets like cars, extra rooms or conveniently-located bathrooms. However, they could also engender a false sense of security about having strangers around a user`s personal stuff. One of the most overused aspects of oversharing is `Check-ins`. Regular check-ins could potentially help burglars keep a diary about a user`s outings, complete with time, so they could easily break in their house when they are at a party expected to end late, the report added.