You finally got a vaccine for Covid-19. Relieve you take a photo of your vaccination card, show your name and date of birth and what vaccine you had, and publish it on social media.
However, some experts warn that the information on the celebration photo could make you vulnerable to identity theft or scams.
“Unfortunately, your card contains your full name and birthday, as well as information about where you got your vaccine,” the Better Business Bureau said last week. “If your privacy settings on social media are not high, you may be providing valuable information to anyone you can use.”
On Friday, the Federal Trade Commission followed suit: ‘You post a photo of your vaccination card on social media. Please – do not do this! Warned it outright. “You can invite identity theft.”
Scammers can sometimes find out most of your social security number by knowing your date and place of birth, and can open new accounts in your name, claim your tax refund for themselves and claim other identity theft, said Maneesha Mithal, co-director of the Privacy Division. and Federal Trade Commission Identity Protection.
“Identity theft is like a mystery, consisting of pieces of personal information,” she said. Mithal said. ‘You do not want to hand over the pieces they need to complete the picture to identity thieves. One of those pieces is your date of birth. ”
But even if experts warn you not to share the card anymore, it’s likely that the information you provide has already been made available in other ways, even though you’ve noticed that your birthday has been noticed online elsewhere – which most people probably has.
Avivah Litan, a senior analyst at research firm Gartner, said many Americans are vulnerable to multiple data breaches.
“The criminals actually have all the names, first names and birth dates of everyone,” Ms Litan said. “There have been so many hacks in the last ten years. If my name and birthday are all they are looking for, they have it.”
How a fraudster works
Scammers and identity thieves often gradually gather information and scrub posts on social media to compile a file about a person’s life, including education, work, and vacation spots. Publishing a date of birth gives you one of your most important personal things.
While a name and date of birth are not all that an identity thief needs in most cases to steal your identity, it becomes easier to see.
“Scammers are looking for personal information they can get from you – any kind of information to set up a profile,” said Curtis W. Dukes, executive vice president of the Center for Internet Security.
A fraudster can take advantage of the anxiety about the vaccine shortage or a slow distribution process by presenting himself as a government official who claims he needs a credit card number to book another dose or enhancer, said Mr. Dukes said.
In such a ‘very charged’ atmosphere of shortages, people can ‘fall for it and give up their credit cards or maybe other pieces of information’, he said.
Me. Litan said: ‘This will at least give the bad actors a chance to know who has been vaccinated. So they can use it for scam purposes to socially design me to pay them for a booster survey I will never get, or use it for valid commercial purposes that bypass normal U.S. regulatory structures. “
A new milestone to celebrate
Exuberant teenagers publish pictures of their driver’s licenses or learning permits. Vacationers post photos of their travels.
The vaccination cards are now a different way “we share these milestones in our lives,” said Nita A. Farahany, a professor of law and philosophy at Duke University School of Law.
But she said one of the concerns was that the cards could be falsified or replicated if the vaccinated status began to function as a commodity giving people access to jobs, restaurants or opportunities.
Someone who has not yet been vaccinated or does not want to be, may be ‘tempted to forge a copy of these photos,’ she said. “Or why would a fraudster not use the photos to create counterfeits to sell to those who want them?”
The Better Business Bureau quoted in its warning newspaper reports in Britain that fake vaccination cards had been bought for about $ 6 on eBay.
Asked about the reports, eBay said in an email that it had blocked and removed items that make false health claims.
Building blocks for an identity
A vaccination card released can also be the springboard for extensive ideas on social engineering or phishing. Such schemes were common during the pandemic.
Stacey Wood, a professor of psychology at Scripps College who advised older adults who are scams, cites the so-called grandparent scam in which a person posing as a law enforcement officer contacted an older adult and details about their grandchild. to know them and say that they are in trouble and need financial help.
“The typical consumer would not think that scammers should have compiled and used information about my life to target me,” she said. “In my practice, there is so much going on at the moment, and it’s just going to be a new thing.”
Cassie Christensen, an adviser to SecZetta, which works with organizations to manage identity risks, said people who posted their vaccination card could open themselves up to a fraudster posing as an official demanding to verify their identity. to notify them of medical concerns about, for suspected new side effects.
The scam can include requests for more information that can help them access someone’s accounts, such as a maiden’s maiden name or address.
“They can also go to LinkedIn and find out where you work,” she said. “They can call those organizations and do a legal reset of passwords.”
According to her, the pandemic and its fears created the perfect environment for it.
“These are all very emotional things,” she said. “This is what hackers and phishers are looking for.”
Rather use a sticker to brag
With vaccine distribution uneven, the cards have become a hotspot. Some use it on their dating profiles. Others are just happy to post good news after a year of so many bad messages.
“Some post it to say, ‘Look, I got it,'” he said. Farahany of Duke said.
But what if there’s another way to say it? The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention thinks there is. As part of its campaign to increase confidence in the vaccines, it has designed templates for stickers, and many states, including Wisconsin, Georgia, Texas, Louisiana, New York and Maryland, publish versions of them.
Public health officials are addressing the widespread use of the stickers to have an impact on people who may be afraid of, indifferent to or simply against vaccines. The stickers could contribute to the so-called “social cascades” of behavior, similar to the way “I Voting” stickers encourage voting, experts say.
“It helps to weaken similar behaviors among other people who observe it,” said Dr. Tara Kirk Sell, a senior scholar at the Johns Hopkins Center for Health Safety, said. “It’s really about saying to others, ‘This is perfectly normal and this is what people do. ‘
The same behavior occurs when masks are widely used, making more people feel less bad when wearing one. “We call it ‘social proof’,” said Dr. Wood said. “Like ‘I did my patriotic duty, I did my civic duty.'”
Stickers also do not disclose personal data, another reason why officials encourage their use.
In Georgia, Attorney General Chris Carr this week called on people to display vaccination stickers, saying he “cannot discourage them enough from posting their vaccination cards on social media” because of the dangers of identity theft.
Plus, “the stickers are really cool,” the FTC said Friday.