Phishing questions
There is numerous types of scams in real life as well as on Facebook.
One of the many scams is a questionnaire or survey post. NOTE: Not all questionnaire posts are scams. However there is no way the user can know if it is safe or not.
I am going to use a questionnaire that is going around Facebook (not saying it is a scam but not saying it is not either. Just using as an example to make a point)
Do you pay attention to your MAN??
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When is his birthday? Jun 15, 77
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What is he doing right now? Playing Everquest
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How many tattoos does he have? 5
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What is his favorite music? Rock
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What is his favorite color? Red
The questionnaire will probably have more questions than this
When people make a password, they use something in their life as the password. They will usually combine things in their life into a password thinking no one will be able to guess it because of that.
A scammer/hacker will send a questionnaire out and ask questions.
The user will think "oh this will be fun"
The user will see a question asking something innocent. However the answer is part of your password. You think oh it is innocent and since you combined it with other things, it won't hurt
The hacker takes those answers and puts them in a database. (they do not have to manually input them. They will have software to automatically input them in the database)
They will have an algorithm that will use that persons username and will mix up the answers that you have given in various combinations. The hacker doesn't even have to type it. The program they are using will mix it up. Lets say his password is 15EverRe. That is not an actual word so you feel it is safe even if you had given them to the questions in separate questions. The algorithm will try various combinations and it can do it real fast. All of a sudden it lets them in because it hacked your password. Even if not all the answers are in the questionnaire for them to get the information, they will store it because they will know you will do more questionnaires so they will capture that info as well. Eventually they can have all the info they need.