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Ok, Ok, We Get It: People Will Give Away Their Identity For Next To Nothing

from the another-one? dept

Thu, Mar 24th 2005 2:27am — Mike Masnick

In the past, we've linked to a variety of studies showing that when offered some cheap trinket or nothing at all, people are often more than willing to give up their private info that can be used for identity theft. It seems the group doing this particular study likes to do it every single year, but with a different "prize." Not quite sure what it proves other than, yes, people are still giving away their info. Two years ago, it was a cheap ballpoint pen. Last year, they found that some chocolate would do the trick. This year, the winning entry is apparently a chance to win some theater tickets. Of course, they're all wasting their money. Another study last year found that you don't need to offer anything. You just ask people for their info and they'll give it to you.

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Armin, 24 Mar 2005 @ 3:45am

I think the prize is not the issue here...
Did you really read the report? As far as I'm concerned the prize is fairly irrelevant here, it's the way the questions are disguised. Because of the way the questions were asked you only realise when you take a step back and look at the questions (and the data they reveal) in combination what the purpose might be.

The social engineering and the means of cleverly disguising the real questions is the problem.

I believe even a lot of security conscious people might have given away at least some sensitive information before realising what was really going on.
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- Mike (profile), 24 Mar 2005 @ 9:29am
  
  Re: I think the prize is not the issue here...
  Right... I was joking about the prizes. Obviously it's the questions that are the issue. My point was, we already know this. They show it every year, but make it seem different because there's a different prize.
  [ link to this | view in chronology ]