We tend to think that a single piece of information (a photo, a brief comment on social media, or even the date of a holiday) isn’t particularly significant. In practice, however, fraudsters use various services and websites to gather individual pieces of information about us, which can later be pieced together to form a bigger picture. Thus, from a few seemingly unrelated pieces of information, a coherent picture can be built of our life circumstances, travel plans, destination and dates of travel, and even health issues. Below, we’ll discuss three scenarios in which data obtained in this way can be used for dangerous activities directed against us.
- Data reveals who we are and how we live.
It’s not just about obvious details such as our national ID number or telephone number. A photo of our home posted online by accident can reveal:
- what assets we own;
- what valuable items we possess;
- whether there’s an alarm system in the house;
- whether the house is in a secluded location;
- whether we live alone.
Combining this information with a brief comment such as ‘Holidays! We’ll be back after New Year’ will allow fraudsters to find out when we’re away and how long the house might be empty.
- Data reveals our habits and plans
Let’s remember that collecting sensitive data is not a short-term process; gathering data about us can take weeks or even months. Such data may include:
- our routines (when we leave and return home);
- the places we visit, where we work or study;
- information about our health and family.
More can be deduced from the data we share than we realise (even if we haven’t provided certain information directly).
- Combining data from different sources
This is one of the most important, yet unfortunately often overlooked, issues. Information about us is scattered across various places on the internet, on services and websites. Such data may be partly public or can be deduced, for example, from photos and our old comments. With the help of such information, a fraudster can:
- put together a profile of us;
- predict our activities (including planned visits);
- assess how likely it is to break into our home at any given time;
- identify our family connections and exploit them in attempts to defraud us.
The key point is that the criminal does not need to have all the information straight away. Just a few details are enough to identify who we are and when we are most vulnerable to an attack.
Note: information about trips away, as well as photos of the interior of our homes, are particularly dangerous.