Are 1.1 Million Pretty People the Next Victims of Identity Theft?

It seems that online dating is dangerous to your identity. It isn’t the first time such a site has experienced a data breach. Ashley Madison, the site for those who want to cheat on their significant others experienced a massive one last summer and Adult Friend Finder was breached and stolen details were used as a tool for a disgruntled hacker seeking revenge. Now, a site that claims to be reserved for only the most beautiful people has been a victim of the same. Hackers were able to obtain sensitive information on 1.1 million pretty members of the site Beautiful People.

The data, which also included 15 million private messages between the site’s users, has been traded on the dark web. Information included very personal details such as height, weight, sexual preferences, income, relationship status, and many other tidbits that make it possible to steal identities.

Putting so many personal details on a website is always going to put you at risk. However, there are ways to be a little bit safer. For example, if you are not required to enter information into a field, don’t. The less that is stored on a site, the better. Once private details get onto the Internet, consider them there for good. Avoid putting details such as your birthday or address into your profile. Always think seriously about what information you want to make public as that can be used even without a breach occurring.

While payment information was not supposedly part of this breach, don’t save any of that information on websites. Yes, it can be annoying to enter it in each time you want to make a purchase, but it is safer not to store it in your profiles. Finally, make sure you always use different login credentials for each online site and that your passwords are always strong. Password reuse presents a big risk to you and has caught out companies such as Apple and Google. Just because the company is big, doesn’t mean your information is 100% safe. And always watch payment card statements for potentially fraudulent charges, just in case it is determined later that those details were included.

Be on the lookout for phishing email messages and phone calls. Email addresses that were stolen can and should be expected to be used for this purpose. Don't click links or attachments in email messages that are from unknown senders or that you are not expecting to receive without verifying their legitimacy first. Phone callers asking for private details should be treated with caution as well. Don't give sensitive data to anyone asking over the phone unless you initiate the call and are sure it is necessary to divulge it.

When you are finished using an online site, delete your profile. There is no reason to leave information in a database if you are not using it.

Beautiful People was told that information from its site had been leaked back in December. However, the company said it was from a test server and therefore was not considered serious. Security researcher Chris Vickery since determined that the data was in fact from actual users of the site.

Beautiful People asks the users to determine who is pretty enough to be on the site, hoping that creating a database of the physically elite will lure customers. Unfortunately, it seems that now the prettiest people may also have put themselves at risk of becoming victims of identity theft.