Is your vaccine card selfie a gift for scammers? May be

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So you finally received a Covid-19 vaccine. Relieved, you take a picture of your vaccination record, showing your name and date of birth and the vaccine you had, and post it on social media.

But some experts warn that the information on the celebration photo could make you vulnerable to identity theft or scams.

“Unfortunately, your card has your full name and birthday on it, as well as information on where you got your vaccine,” the Better Business Bureau said last week. “If your social media privacy settings aren’t set high, you can give out valuable information to anyone.”

The Federal Trade Commission followed suit on Friday: “You post a photo of your vaccination card on social media. Please – don’t do that! he warned bluntly. “You could invite identity theft.”

Scammers can sometimes understand most of the digits in your Social Security number by knowing your date and place of birth, and can open new accounts in your name, claim your tax refund for themselves, and engage in d ‘other identity theft, said Maneesha Mithal, associate director. from the Privacy and Identity Protection Division of the Federal Trade Commission.

“Identity theft is like a puzzle, made up of pieces of personal information,” Ms. Mithal said. “You don’t want to give identity thieves the documents they need to complete the picture. One of those pieces is your date of birth. “

But even if experts warn you not to share your card, if you’ve noted your birthday somewhere else online – which most people probably have – it’s likely that the information you’re giving up has already been made available by others. other means.

Avivah Litan, senior analyst at research firm Gartner, said many Americans are vulnerable due to multiple data breaches.

“Basically, criminals already have just about everyone’s last name, first name and date of birth,” Ms. Litan said. “There have been so many hacks over the past 10 years. If all they’re looking for is my name and birthday, they’ve got it.

Scammers and identity thieves often collect information gradually, wiping out social media posts to keep a record of a person’s life, including education, employment, and vacations. Posting a date of birth gives you one of your most important personal information.

While a name and date of birth is not all an identity thief would need in most cases to steal your identity, it is easier to bring these details to light.

“Crooks are looking for any personally identifying information they can get from you – any kind of information to create a profile,” said Curtis W. Dukes, executive vice president of the Center for Internet Security.

A con artist could exploit anxiety over vaccine shortages or the slow distribution process by posing as a government official claiming to need a credit card number to reserve another dose or a reminder, a Mr Dukes said.

In such an atmosphere of “highly charged” scarcity, people “can fall for it and can give up their credit cards or maybe other pieces of information,” he said.

Ms Litan said: “At a minimum, this will give the bad actors a good start on who got the vaccine. So they can use it for scam purposes to socially engage me to pay them for a recall I will never get, or use it for valid business purposes that bypass normal US regulatory structures. ”

Exuberant teens post pictures of their driver’s license or learning permit. Vacationers post photos of their trips.

Immunization cards are now another way “to share these milestones in our lives,” said Nita A. Farahany, professor of law and philosophy at Duke University School of Law.

But she said one of the concerns was that the cards could be forged or duplicated if the vaccinated status begins to function as a commodity that gives people access to jobs, restaurants or events.

Someone who is not yet vaccinated or who does not want to be could be “tempted to falsify a copy of these photographs,” she said. “Or why wouldn’t a crook entrepreneur use the photographs to create forgeries to sell to those who want them?”

The Better Business Bureau, in its warning, cited UK newspaper reports that fake vaccination cards were purchased on eBay for around $ 6.

When asked about the reports, eBay said in an emailed statement that it had blocked and removed items making false health claims.

A publicly released vaccination record could also serve as a springboard for elaborate social engineering or phishing ideas. Such programs were common during the pandemic.

Stacey Wood, a professor of psychology at Scripps College who has counseled elderly people who have been scammed, cited the alleged grandparents scam, in which a person posing as a law enforcement officer contacted a person old and gave details about their grandchild, pretending to know them and say they were in trouble and needed financial help.

“The typical consumer wouldn’t think that the crooks must have organized information about my life and used it to target me,” she said. “In my practice there is so much going on out there right now, and it will just be a new thing.

Cassie Christensen, a consultant at SecZetta, which works with organizations to manage identity risk, said people who displayed their vaccination cards could open up to a scammer posing as an official demanding to verify their identity to inform them of medical problems, such as new suspected side effects.

The scam could involve requests for additional information that would help them access someone’s accounts, such as a mother’s maiden name or an address.

“They can also go on LinkedIn and find out where you work,” she says. “They can call these organizations and perform a legitimate password reset.”

The pandemic and its fears, she said, created the perfect environment for it.

“This is all very moving,” she says. “That’s what hackers and phishers are looking for.”

With the distribution of vaccines uneven, maps have become a point of bragging. Some use it on their dating profiles. Others are just happy to report good news after such a bad year.

“Some are posting it to say, ‘Look, I got that,’ said Duke’s Dr Farahany.

But what if there was another way to put it? The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention thinks so. As part of her campaign to increase confidence in vaccines, she has designed sticker designs, and many states, including Wisconsin, Georgia, Texas, Louisiana, New York, and Maryland, are distributing them. versions.

Public health officials are banking on the widespread use of stickers to impact people who might be scared, indifferent, or just against vaccines. The stickers could contribute to so-called “social stunts” of behavior, in the same way that “I voted” stickers encourage voting, experts say.

“It helps galvanize similar behavior in other people who might observe this,” said Dr. Tara Kirk Sell, senior researcher at the Johns Hopkins Center for Health Security. “It’s really about trying to tell other people, ‘This is totally normal and this is what people do.'”

The same behavior occurs when masks are used extensively, making more people feel less out of place when they wear one. “We call this ‘social proof,’ said Dr. Wood. “Like ‘I did my patriotic duty, I did my civic duty.'”

The stickers also don’t reveal personal data, another reason managers encourage their use.

In Georgia this week, Attorney General Chris Carr urged people to display vaccination stickers, saying he “couldn’t discourage them enough from posting their vaccination cards on social media” due to the dangers of identity theft.

Plus, “the stickers are really cool,” the FTC said Friday.

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