Answering social media questionnaires could help ID thieves: Police

The answers to questions may lead thieves to your banking accounts.

ByABC News
December 20, 2017, 12:13 AM
A woman checks the Facebook Inc. site on her smartphone while standing against an illuminated wall bearing the Facebook Inc. logo in this arranged photograph in London, Dec. 23, 2015.
A woman checks the Facebook Inc. site on her smartphone while standing against an illuminated wall bearing the Facebook Inc. logo in this arranged photograph in London, Dec. 23, 2015.
Bloomberg via Getty Images

— -- You'll want to think twice the next time you're about to enter your best friend's first name in one of those Facebook quizzes.

Law enforcement officials are warning social media users that those seemingly harmless questionnaires on Facebook and other social media platforms could be furnishing identity thieves with all they need to steal your personal information.

"Please be aware of some of the posts you comment on," warned the Sutton Police Department in Massachusetts, in a Facebook post. "The posts that ask what was your first grade teacher, who was your childhood best friend, your first car, the place you [were] born, your favorite place, your first pet, where did you go on your first flight, etc...Those are the same questions asked when setting up accounts as security questions." You are giving out the answers to your security questions without realizing it."

According to the Sutton Police Department, "You are giving out the answers to your security questions without realizing it."

While many of these questionnaire are meant for fun, the Sutton Police Department said hackers are now setting up the pages specifically to get data and to open lines of credit in other people's name.

The Federal Trade Commission has set up a website for anyone who feels their data has been compromised.