The problem I have with this email forward isn’t with the act of creating or telling your friends about your porn star name. The problem is that it is asking me to forward my personal information in an email that is likely to be forwarded again and again until it finally comes back to me later this year.
Whenever someone asks my porn star name I tell them it’s “Password-Hint Identity-Theft.”
You’re probably thinking, “Wait, that information isn’t that personal, and besides I only sent it to five of my best friends.” You’d be wrong on both accounts.
Just because you only forwarded it to five of your friends doesn’t mean the information only went to them. If each of those friends forwards that email to five of their friends without deleting your information, that’s 25 people who now have your info. Repeat that process five more times and more than 78,000 people would have your email address, the name of your first pet and the name of the street you grew up on. Chain-mail is amazing isn’t it?
Now about the information — what can someone malicious do with it? Well, they have your email address, which is used by many websites as a login name (or sites that use a different login name may ask for your email address to send you your log in name). Neither of those pieces of information is a big deal as long as the person with that information doesn’t have your password.
In order to get or reset your password many sites will ask you for some personal information. Some of the frequent questions are the maiden name of one of your grandmothers, the town you were born in, the street you grew up on or the name of your first pet. So, now a football stadium’s worth of people have enough information about you to possibly get access to your email or other accounts on the web.
Now I’ll grant you that the chances of this information actually falling into the hands of someone with the desire and ability to use it maliciously are probably tremendously small, but it is something to think about. Maybe next time something like this comes through your inbox you can file it away and try to remember it the next time all of your friends get together. It will probably be more fun going around a campfire exchanging porn names than reading them piecemeal in the office while your boss isn’t looking.
Jeremy Hutchinson, owner of Foreside Technology, assists local businesses with purchasing, configuring and maintaining their computers, servers and networks. You can reach him at Jeremy@ForesideTech.com.