How hackers use social media to access your accounts? Hackers use social media sites as fertile beds as information about you. Think hard about what you share on social media sites. Now think about the passwords you use to access your accounts.

How Hackers Use Social Media To Access Your Accounts

Information such as your dog’s name, the name of your children, partner, or parents is generally posted along with pictures and videos. If you are using that same information to create passwords, now would be an excellent time to change them.

Don’t use your pets name as a password

Look at it from the fraudster’s point of view. If your goal is gathering as much personal information about a stranger as possible, one obvious and easy place to start would be social media accounts. Once enough data is collected, access to personal accounts and especially cell phones becomes much more accessible. And the goal of accessing your mobile phone account is simple.

How hackers use social media to access your accounts?

A high percentage of people now do at least some of their banking through mobile apps. Take a moment and let that fact sink in.

Hackers use social media to access your accounts by what is now known as social engineering. To accomplish this, they can begin with as little information as your name and phone number.

One of the latest types of hack plaguing the telecommunications industry is called a SIM swap. Fraud through social engineering happens typically by phone, but the hackers are now utilizing text messaging and online chats more every day. The process usually begins with hackers using the information gained on social media to call your telecommunications company’s customer service department. They will be persuasive and charm an unsuspecting customer service representative into believing that they are the account holder.

How hackers use social media to access your accounts?

Once the hacker has access to your phone account, they will request to do the SIM swap. Then, once they have successfully swapped out your SIM card for their own, they will have immediate access to any mobile apps you have downloaded. They will also have access to any user names and passwords you have saved intentionally or not deleted from your phone’s history.

How Hackers Use Social Media To Access Your Accounts

Also, it is essential to remember that hackers can call the company over and over again. They do not have to succeed on just one call ultimately. They can continue to call, each time speaking with a different representative to gain information little by little until they succeed. At this point, the victim is usually unaware that they are being hacked because any potential alerts are being directed to the hacker, not the legitimate person on the account.

How Hackers Use Social Media To Access Your Accounts

Now the hacker can transfer any or all of the funds in your bank accounts wherever they please. Also, if the transaction is red-flagged by the banking institutions, they will be contacting the hacker to verify the transaction instead of the genuine account holder. By employing social engineering techniques, the hacker will generally have enough information to answer security questions. With full access to the accounts, the rate of success is alarming high. Some recent reports have identified fraud and identity theft claims in the tens of thousands just since the beginning of this year.

How Hackers Use Social Media To Access Your Accounts

A few recommendations to try to safeguard your personal information and accounts are very straightforward. First, do not ever give out personal information on the phone or over the internet. When you receive an email or call from your banking institution, do not immediately respond. Hang up or exit the email, google your bank’s contact information and initiate a call using their published information. If the contact was legitimate, their telephone representatives should be able to assist you with whatever the reason was for the initial contact.

How hackers use social media to access your accounts?

Next, spend some time checking and adjusting the privacy settings on your electronic devices and all of the social media sites you have downloaded. Install a privacy protection program on your devices and run scans frequently to eliminate malware that has crept in unknowingly.

Change your passwords and not include any information that someone would know by looking through your social media sites or your wallet.

Take the time to change to longer passwords that include random numbers and symbols.

How Hackers Use Social Media To Access Your Accounts

Please do not create a spreadsheet or save them on your device. Write them down and keep them in a secure location. And finally, to make it even more difficult for a hacker to get to your money, do not download any mobile financial apps. If you need to do remote banking, opt for telephone banking instead. The less information you put on your phone, the safer you will be in the long run.

Read more – How to Protect Yourself From Apps Accessing Your Personal Information

For more information please visit Report Fraud website.