Identity Theft

dkb

Hi
Probably the wrong place for this but.....

I cant find a definitive procedure for if you left yourself open to ID theft. My situation is this. I accepted a friend request on facebook from someone I thought I knew. It turned out I didnt and it looked dodgy so I deleted them about 10 minutes later. I'm reading that someone can steal your identity from your name, date of birth and place of birth? Is this correct? Now, those pieces of information are available on my profile so coupled with the dodgy user I'm now thinking what if. I'd like to nip this in the bud. It happened today. I expect its quite low risk but even so.

Any advice or guidance appreciated.

Thanks

sourcrates

dkb wrote: »

Any advice or guidance appreciated.
Thanks

Hi,
Remove personal info from Facebook if your that bothered, its basically an open invitation to fraudsters.

In reality i think you may be OK, as most fraudsters would require access to your home address to retrieve bank/credit cards etc, dependent on what form of fraud they were perpetrating.

But your right to be wary, it happened to me a few years ago, when card numbers were still printed on receipts, i threw one in a bin, someone picked it out, i was £400 down within hours.

Did get refunded by the bank, but im very careful now.

Tixy

That info from your fb profile alone is unlikely to be enough for anyone to do much.

However if they already had certain information about you (a letter / name & address / intercepted mail) then obtaining your DOB may be useful to them.

Action fraud has some advice for people who have been victims of ID theft - may be worth having a look on their website to see if they have advice in your situation.

Is your email address / phone number on facebook? if so be extra careful in terms of phishing type scams.

dkb

Thanks
I was thinking something like taking out a loan or something in my name but I'm not sure what they can do with a name and a date of birth and possibly city

dkb

Tixy wrote: »

That info from your fb profile alone is unlikely to be enough for anyone to do much.

However if they already had certain information about you (a letter / name & address / intercepted mail) then obtaining your DOB may be useful to them.

Action fraud has some advice for people who have been victims of ID theft - may be worth having a look on their website to see if they have advice in your situation.

Is your email address / phone number on facebook? if so be extra careful in terms of phishing type scams.

Thank you
My phone number isn't on there and neither is my email address