IDTheftInfo.org

Posting Your COVID Vaccine Card Online Could Lead to Identity Theft
PDF Print E-mail


February 5, 2021

As part of Identity Theft Protection Week, Georgia Attorney General Chris Carr issued a warning for people who have received their COVID vaccine not to share the news by posting their COVID vaccine card to their social media apps as doing so could lead to identity theft.

Attorney General Carr pointed out that vaccine cards containing a person’s full name and birth date might help someone to apply for a loan or credit card in their name or hack into their accounts if they used their birthdate as a password or PIN. “A safer way to share about your vaccine on social media would be to update your status or to post a picture of your vaccination sticker,” Carr advised. 

No matter what state you live in, following these tips from the Georgia Attorney General’s Office will help you stay safe online and reduce your risk of identity theft:

  • Avoid listing the following information publicly: date of birth, hometown, home address, year of your high school or college graduation, primary e-mail address.
  • Only invite people to your social network that you know of have met, as opposed to friends of friends and strangers.
  • Never, ever give out your Social Security Number or driver's license number. 
  • Consider unique user names and passwords for each profile and don't share them with anyone. 
  • The longer the password is, the stronger it is. Using a mix of letters, numbers, and special characters also makes a password harder to crack. 
  • Check your credit card and bank accounts regularly for any charges you do not recognize. Notify your financial institution immediately if you see an unauthorized transaction.
  • Monitor your credit reports regularly to look for any accounts you don't recognize. To access your free credit report, go to annualcreditreport.com. To prevent someone from opening a new account in your name, consumer placing a credit freeze  with each of the three credit reporting agencies (TransUnion, Experian, and Equifax).
  • Look out for phishing emails, texts, or links that ask you to provide your Social Security Number, birth date, financial account information, username or password. Scammers may be posing as legitimate businesses or acquaintances of yours to try to steal your money. 
  • If you think you have been the victim of identity theft, visit identitytheft.gov to report it and get a recovery plan.


 
Welcome to IDTheftInfo.org

Are you concerned about identity theft? With so many stories about identity theft in the news, you’re not alone. IDTheftInfo.org was created by Consumer Federation of America to help you learn how to reduce the chances of becoming a victim, detect identity theft quickly if it does happen, and deal with the consequences. If you have a business, there is information for you about how to keep employee and customer information secure.


Featured Resource

Dark Web Monitoring


You may see ads for identity theft services claiming that they will look for your Social Security number, credit card numbers, or other personal information for sale on the “dark web.” Do you know what these services do if they find it?

Dark Web Monitoring: What You Should Know