Social engineering is the use of deception by fraudsters to trick you into sharing personally identifiable information (PII), such as your Social Security number, credit card information, etc.
Here are some general tips to help keep you safe.
- Protect your privacy. Be particularly careful in public areas of sites like Facebook and Twitter. Keep your private information private, and share it only in trusted places.
- Be suspicious of new social media contacts. For example, fraudsters often pose as ID.me employees and ask you for information to "help verify your identity". Legitimate ID.me employees never ask for information in this way.
- Beware of job scams. Scammers may offer you a false job opportunity, then convince you to complete ID.me's identity process for "employment verification". The scammer can then use your cooperation to acquire your personal information. There are similar scams involving dating sites, sweepstakes, or other types of fraud.
- Know who you are communicating with. Legitimate support through social media will only come from official ID.me pages:
- Our authorized Twitter accounts are @IDme, @IDmeSupport and @Blake_Hall.
- You can find us on Reddit in r/IDmeSupport with our verified account u/IDmeOfficial.
- Constant vigilance! Always be on the lookout for suspicious looking links, odd looking content (with typos, etc.), unsolicited contact from people you don't know (e.g. on dating sites), etc.
