Why You Can’t Publish Your Phone Number On The Internet

Network cybercriminals have a variety of ways to obtain a large amount of information about the owner of a phone number, which accidentally or through an oversight appeared on the Internet.

Often, users themselves indicate the number on social networks and on other sites – thanks to this, scammers can find out their full name and even passport data, Anton Kukanov, head of the Roskachestvo Center for Digital Expertise, told the Prime agency.

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For example, on popular social networks, you can enter a phone number in the search bar and most likely find a user’s page. Even if he has disabled this option, but uses the same avatar in all of his accounts, a regular image search will lead the attackers to the public page, the expert says.

Thanks to the information that is often freely available on social networks, you can find out personal data up to the place of residence or work, find out where a person travels and with whom he is friends. All this swindlers can use for malicious purposes.

To avoid falling victim to them, you need to separate the phone numbers. For example, it is better not to publish the number associated with a bank account anywhere, but use a virtual number for mailings and purchases.