Celebrating your second COVID-19 vaccination on social media? If you’re posting a photo of your vaccination card on social media, please don’t do it! You could be setting yourself up for identity theft.
Your COVID-19 vaccination card has information on it including your full name, date of birth, where and when you received your vaccine. When you post that to Instagram, Facebook, or to some other social media site, you may be handing over valuable information to someone who will use it to steal your identity.
Look at it this way. In order to create a fake identity thieves need to piece together various pieces of information they have found about you, just like a puzzle. You don’t want to give identity thieves any additional pieces they need to finish the picture. One of those pieces is your date of birth.
Just by knowing your date and place of birth, identity thieves can guess most of the digits of your Social Security number. Once they have the pieces they need, they can use the information to open new accounts in your name, claim your tax refund for themselves, and engage in other activities in your name.
If you really want to share the great news about your COVID-19 vaccination card, why not share a photo of a silly adhesive bandage or a syringe pasted to your arm? (You can show off your tattoos and deltoids at the same time.) Or, post a photo of your white or orange vaccine sticker.
Whenever you share on social media networks, be sure that you’re not oversharing information that might give away information that could lead to guessing your PIN number or answer any security question. Don’t forget to also check your privacy settings.
Visit How to Keep Your Personal Information Secure on the FTC website for more tips about protecting your information against identity thieves.
