Robert Siciliano is a NextAdvisor.com Expert Guest Blogger
The identity theft scourge knows no borders. It can happen to everyone: rich, poor, good credit, bad credit. The victims are children, the elderly, celebrities and politicians. Identity theft can include new account fraud, account recovery, theft of criminal identity, corporate identity theft and medical identity theft. Most of the results in financial loss.
A form of identity theft is particularly damaging to the reputation of the victim's identity theft social media. identity thieves social media have different motivations. The most damaging type of identity theft social media occurs when someone poses as you to disrupt your life. This disruption can take many forms. They can harass and stalk you or your contacts, or they can steal your online identity for financial gain.
In the case of the St. Louis Cardinals manager Tony La Russa, someone created a Twitter account in his name. La Russa continues Twitter, saying the Twitter page impostor damaged his reputation and caused emotional distress. The lawsuit includes a screen shot of three tweets. One, posted April 19, read, "Lost 2 out of 3, but we made it to Chicago without one incident of drunk driving or dead pitcher." Apparently, La Russa had a stop impaired driving and two Cardinals pitchers have died since 2002. pitcher died of a heart attack, the other in a car accident drunk driving.
There are no limits to damage someone can do using your name and image to impersonate online. In Milwaukee, Wisconsin, a 18 year old student was accused of posing as a girl on Facebook, tricking at least 31 male classmates into sending him nude photos of themselves, then sing some of these young men for sex.
social media sites have been created to bring people together in a positive way, but we are beginning to see these sites used very sinister way. The root of the problem is the fact that social media sites are all based on the honor system, with the assumption that people are honestly setting up accounts in their own name. There are few checks and balances in the social media world, which means that you need to adopt a strategy of another form of predator to protect you.
There are hundreds or even thousands of social media sites, including Facebook, MySpace, Twitter and YouTube. Even the website of your local newspaper is a place for user feedback, and most people prefer to register their own names before anyone else has done in their name.
I got over 200 user names related to my name given to mitigate identity theft social media. This may sound obsessive, but the two examples given above are all anyone needs proof repress social media. I'm on all of Affluence.org to Zooomr.com. Some I use, others simply have my profile and a link to my site. I should also mention that there are risks associated with such a mission. You may experience a spike in spam, as I have done, I suggest the creation of an email address. In addition, some sites make you join groups that you do not have much control over. I am now a member of a group masochistic fetish of the opposite sex. Not exactly what I signed. So be careful.
The goal is to get your real first and last name without periods, underscores, hyphens, abbreviations or extra numbers or letters.
These tips are repeated:
- Enter your full name and your spouse and children on social media sites, blogs, the most trafficked areas or web-based email accounts. If your name is already gone, include your middle initial, a period or a hyphen. It is for you to decide whether or not to connect your picture and basic bio, but consider leaving your age or birthday.
- Set up a free Google Alerts for your name and get an email whenever your name appears online.
- Set up a free account StepRep your name. StepRep is an online reputation manager that does a better job than Google Alerts is to go get your name on the web.
- Consider dropping $ 65 on Knowem.com. This is an online portal that comes and saves your name to what they see as the top social media sites 120. Their top 120 is debatable, but a good start. The user experience with KnowEm is relatively painless. There is more work involved in setting up and things with a little 120. And no matter what you do, you will still find it difficult to complete registration with all 120 sites. Some of the social media sites are just not pleasant. This can save you a lot of time, but is only part of the resolution of the identity theft problem of social media.
- Start doing things online to boost your online reputation. Blogging is the best. You want Google to bring your given name at the top of the search in its best light, so that when someone is looking for you, they see good things. This is an online reputation management combination and optimization of search engines for your brand :. YOU
- If you ever come across someone using your image in social media, be very persistent in contacting the site administrators. They too reputation for managing and if they see someone using your photo or image that they would be smart to delete the stolen profile.
- Or do nothing and do not worry about it. But when another John Doe does something stupid or uses your name in a derogatory manner or identity theft, and people assume it's you, remember that I told you.
- Despite all the work that you can do to protect yourself, you still need protection against identity theft and Internet security software.
Robert Siciliano, identity theft speaker, discusses the privacy of social media.
Robert Siciliano is CEO of IDTheftSecurity.com, an expert on identity theft, professional speaker, security analyst, published author and television news correspondent. Siciliano works with Fortune 1000 and start-up companies as a consultant on product launches, branding, messaging, representation, SEO and media. the thoughts and advice of Siciliano on all these issues often appear in both television and print media news, including CNN, MSNBC, CNBC, FOX, Forbes and USA Today. He has 25 years of safety training as a member of the American Society for Industrial Security. He is the author of two books, including The Safety Minute: Living on high alert; How to take control of your personal safety and to prevent fraud . He also established a partnership with Uni-Ball to help raise awareness of the growing threat of identity theft and provide tips on how you can protect yourself.