Facebook quizzes. There are a countless number of them. Some about animals, others about things like Disney characters, and even IQ quizzes.
You may think you're answering questions about your pet, but you may be providing a gateway into your personal information. Miguel Segura, the Regional Director for the Better Business Bureau said, "These hackers try to get us to answer some of these questions so they can access more personal accounts. Think about your bank account, your Amazon account, anywhere where you have financial information linked to it. They all have security questions if you don't remember your password."
Some scammers may watch you for a day, but others even longer. "What is scary when it comes to Facebook, is that a lot of these scammers will actually follow us for weeks, sometimes even months to see our behaviors to see where we are," Segura said.
So how do you protect yourself? "We recommend, first and foremost, you check their privacy settings make sure that you are only sharing the information you want with the people that you want," Segura said.
Something as simple as your hometown or birthday and the place that you work can be potentially dangerous and give the scammers and opportunity to generate another scam that could benefit off your back. Segura also told us, "Be skeptical and think twice before filling out all these questionnaires, because not all of them are fun and harmless."
You want to make sure you understand who that quiz was created by and what the purpose for that information is being used for. And don't accept friend requests from people you don't know. Segura added, "These scammers may have taken pictures from a real person, made a completely fake profile to try to convince you to add them then, they are going to start sending you messages, wanting you to click on links and trying to garner a little more information from you."