Criminals are increasingly using dates of birth harvested from retail data breaches to perpetrate scams and identity fraud, according to cybersecurity professionals. When attackers obtain birth dates through hacks of online retailers or other platforms, they can combine this information with additional stolen data to construct convincing impersonation attempts or manipulate victims into revealing sensitive information.
Dates of birth are frequently collected during sign-up processes for retailers, loyalty programs, newsletters, and online competitions. A recent breach of the online retailer Asos included customers’ dates of birth among compromised details. Cybersecurity experts note that while a birth date alone may have limited value, it becomes significantly more useful when combined with names, phone numbers, addresses, and other identifying information. Criminals can use these enriched profiles to make phishing communications appear authentic or to convince customer service representatives that they are the account holder.
Retailers often request birth dates during registration because this information helps them calculate customer age for marketing and targeting purposes, reducing incentives for companies to eliminate these data collection fields. An investigator examining retailer practices found that eight out of 14 surveyed companies requested dates of birth at sign-up. Experts recommend that consumers avoid providing real birth dates on low-risk websites or use the same placeholder date across all retailers if the field cannot be left blank. They emphasize that birth dates should only be provided to institutions that verify identity against official records, such as banks, lenders, tax authorities, and passport agencies.
Consumers are advised to remain skeptical of unsolicited contact, even when callers possess personal information. Additional protective measures include using separate email addresses for online shopping and declining to fill out non-mandatory personal data fields whenever possible.
Article Attribution | Read More at Article Source
Article summary produced by Claude AI