The chance to win theatre tickets is enough to make people give away their identity. A fake survey on theatre-going habits helped potential frauds to collect private information about Londoners.
The survey, which questioned 200 people stopped on London streets, was carried out for Infosecurity Europe which takes place from 26-28 April. The results are really disturbing: 92% revealed details such as mother's maiden name, first school, birth date, name, address, and even postcode.
Some questions of the survey were thinly disguised as questions on theatre-going habits and had strong legend. For example, one of the questions was about the way that actors pick stage names. Those taking part in the survey were told that many stage names are created using a pet's name and the actor's mother's maiden name. When asked what their stage name would be using the same criteria, 94% volunteered information.
To sum up by the end of the survey the potential frauds had everything they needed for identity theft. Collected information was enough to answer any secret or supplementary questions that are widely used for authentication in the Internet. Furthermore the fake researchers could take out credit cards in respondent's name and even open bank accounts.
Chris Simpson, head of Scotland Yard's computer crime unit, called the results "disturbing" and said: “Preventing the theft of your own identity is relatively simple, but it relies on the individual taking steps to protect themselves.”
He also suggested three basic rules for people who would like to prevent an information leakage: share sensitive data with as few people as possible; shred personal correspondence before throwing it away; never share passwords across different computer systems.
The Home Office reports that more than 100,000 British people every year suffer identity fraud.
“The threat of identity theft is one of the most dangerous. The Home Office reports that more than 100,000 British people every year suffer identity fraud. I suppose people should be more attentive, otherwise nothing in the world will save them from being swindled. By the way there isn't such a technical solution that is able to prevent an information leakage when the weak link in the chain is human,” – comments Denis Zenkin, the Marketing Director of InfoWatch company.
Source: BBC NEWS (UK Edition)
