Protect Yourself from Identity Theft and Facebook Cloning
How to Protect Yourself from Identity Theft
- Use strong, unique passwords for all your accounts and update them regularly.
- Enable two-factor authentication (2FA) whenever possible.
- Avoid sharing personal information like your Social Security Number or bank details unless absolutely necessary.
- Monitor your financial accounts and credit reports for unusual activity.
- Be cautious of phishing scams. Avoid clicking on suspicious links in emails or messages.
- Shred documents containing sensitive information before disposing of them.
- Keep your devices updated with the latest security patches and antivirus software.
- Freeze your credit reports if you are not actively seeking credit. Visit the following links to freeze your credit:
How to Prevent Your Facebook Account from Being Cloned or Compromised
- Set your Facebook profile to private so that only friends can see your posts and photos.
- Go to your Facebook settings.
- Select "Privacy" from the menu.
- Adjust "Who can see your future posts?" to "Friends."
- Review other privacy options to limit access to your profile.
- Set your friends list to private so that only friends can see it.
- Go to your Facebook profile and click on the "Friends" tab.
- Click the pencil icon or "Edit Privacy" button.
- Set "Who can see your friends list?" to "Friends" or "Only Me."
- Be selective when accepting friend requests. Avoid accepting requests from people you don’t know.
- Regularly review your friend list to remove unknown or suspicious profiles.
- Report any cloned accounts pretending to be you or your friends to Facebook immediately.
- Turn on login alerts to receive notifications if someone logs into your account from an unrecognized device.
- Educate your friends about cloned accounts and encourage them to report suspicious profiles.