Party invitations, secret-Santa apps and festive quizzes quietly harvest the details that unlock your accounts.
The scam
Fun prompts — your first pet, your mother's maiden name, the street you grew up on — are the answers to security questions. Shared event invites and gift-exchange sign-ups collect names, addresses and birthdays that fill out an identity profile for later fraud.
How to stay safe
Treat quizzes as questionnaires
Do not answer prompts that double as security answers, and set security questions to random strings stored in your password manager.
Keep invitations private
Use invite links that require sign-in, and avoid public guest lists that expose who will be where, and when.
"Wheels up to St. Barts." A sunset photo tagged at your villa. To the wrong audience, every post says your home is empty and shows where you are right now.