One of the more obvious do-nots when it comes to avoiding Identity theft is to avoid publishing personal documents or information on the Internet for anyone to see.
And yes Vauxhall, that does include passport numbers.
The corporate sponsor of the England football team made somewhat of a blunder that would make any privacy activist wince, by tweeting an image of a document that contained the full passport numbers of the England football team who played Ecuador.
The passport numbers were published along with the birthdates of each player too. And to add insult to injury (there’s a football pun there somewhere) Frank Lampard even had his signature included on the list as well.
A persons date of birth, passport number and signature is, needless to say, gold dust to an identity thief, especially considering the wages these players are on.
Just a friendly reminder (not that our readers need it) is to perhaps avoid publishing documents containing personal information of other people on social media.
At least football pundit Gary Lineker saw the bright side…
England have never lost a World Cup in which the players' passport numbers were on a pre tournament friendly team-sheet.
— Gary Lineker (@GaryLineker) June 4, 2014