Is it Safe to Take Those Facebook Quizzes?

Many of the personality quizzes you see on Facebook and other social media platforms are actually data collection scams posted by fraudsters.

By Rebecca L. Bennett

 

Scenario: You’re scrolling through your Facebook News Feed and notice an invitation to take a quiz to find out which dog breed best fits your personality.

The quiz seems harmless. Who wouldn’t want to know if they’re the happy-go-lucky Golden Retriever type or a sassy-yet-sensitive Pug at heart?

But be careful. Many of the personality quizzes you see on Facebook and other social media platforms are actually data collection scams posted by fraudsters. 

According to the Better Business Bureau (BBB), online scammers can use these quizzes to install malware onto users’ devices and access account information. Once they have your data, they can use it to hack your profile, steal your identity and impersonate you to friends and family.

 

Be careful when allowing external website access to your social media profile information. Even finding out details like the make and model of your current vehicle can help a scammer answer common identity verification questions.

 

If you have taken one of these quizzes recently, change your password and the passwords of any linked accounts immediately.

It’s also a good idea to regularly review your social media privacy settings, consider the data you share and watch out for other types of social media data collection schemes, such as fake profiles.

Experts recommend restricting the data you post publicly and never sharing details that could help scammers answer common identity verification questions or guess your passwords, such as birthdays, anniversaries and vehicle makes and models.

They also advise carefully reviewing friend requests — even from people you know well. Scammers often create fake user profiles and try to trick the contacts of the user they are impersonating into adding the fake profile, clicking malicious links and sharing sensitive data in direct messages.

If someone you know already has an account but sends you a friend request from a new profile, use a known phone number to contact them directly to ask them about the new account. If you do discover the new account is fake, be sure to report it.

Personal Finance