Young people warned about 'over-sharing' on social media

Thursday 16 March 2017

With new figures showing that identity frauds are reaching a record high, young people are being warned not to post information on social media which could help criminals.

There were almost 173,000 cases of identity fraud in the UK in 2016, close to 500 a day.

Over 80% of fraud cases are committed online, with fraudsters gleaning much information about young people from social media use - the number of under 21-year-olds defrauded has risen by a third.

Those statistics have led the CI IT firm Logicalis to urge young people to be careful about what they post.

Ricky Magalhaes, Head of Cyber Security at Logicalis, said: “Everyone needs to be more vigilant about what they post online and should be aware that anything that is on a public forum, or on a social media page with public access, can be used by criminals to commit identity fraud. Fraudsters can gain information such as your name, date of birth, location, and even your address, from information you post online. The rise in identity fraud among young people is perhaps partly due to them being more active on social media, and being more open about what they share.”

The latest figures, which were collated by Cifas, a fraud prevention organisation, highlight the growth of identity fraud, with cases up from 77,642 in the UK in 2008 to 172,919 in 2016, the highest level since records began 13 years ago. 

Mr Magalhaes said: “The easiest way to stay safe online and to protect your identity is to think carefully about what you share online, and to be aware what the privacy settings are on all your accounts. All social media accounts allow you to choose your privacy settings, so be careful to set things to private if you don’t want them to be in the public domain. There have been cases of fraud in the Channel Islands that have happened when someone has accepted a friend request from a criminal pretending to be someone you know. Accepting a friend request from someone like this opens up even more information to criminals, putting you at greater risk.”

Just last month, it was revealed an islander had lost a large amount of money after being scammed by someone who had hacked one of his friends' Facebook accounts.