Warning about posting child’s details onto Facebook – real or overblown?

Messages are spreading across Facebook warning mothers about a post spreading across the Internet that asks them to post the birthplace, date and names of their little ones onto their Facebook timelines in “honour of Mother’s Day”.

The messages have caused plenty of worry and confusion on social networking sites and parenting forums alike. So we explain exactly what is going on, and what – if anything – you need to be worried about. Is this a genuine threat, or are the warnings overblown?

The warning messages have taken various incarnations from what we have been able to see, and they have already spurred the usual flurry of hastily authored “police warnings” and media coverage.

A few of the warnings we’ve seen on Facebook that have been spreading can be seen below –

As you can see from the above the warnings make differing assertions, based on which variant you happen to come across. Some claim it is a scam set up by cyber criminals to obtain Social Security numbers, fake credit or entire identities. Others claim it is part of a child benefit fraud scam. Others simply advise it is a bad idea.

First off, the warnings are indeed in response to a post floating around Facebook that does ask for such information, as you can see from the screenshot of it we managed to track down below –

In honor of Mother’s day, post the name, birthday, due date and weight of your child[ren]. Then post in comments so your fellow mothers can post onto their wall. Name: Birthday: Due date: Weight:

However, whilst sharing too much information online is something we do regularly warn our readers against, these warnings are simply too alarmist and misleading to be of any real use, and have been spreading since 2011, so they’re not new either.

The reason they’re overblown primarily stems from the fact that in order to commit any of the types of fraud outlined in the warning messages, a criminal would need much more information than a child’s name, date and place of birth and weight. Applicants wishing to apply for things like banking credit or child benefit undergo much more vigorous checks than simply rocking up to the relevant office with a handful of basic details about a child.

If it were that simple, these types of crimes would be rife, since one could glean or infer such fundamental information about a child from a variety of sources, including newborn announcements in the local rag!

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Benefit and credit fraud are real types of crime, which is why you can’t acquire any such financial aid with just a few details about a person. After all, as any applicant would tell you, you usually have to complete exhaustive forms and show legitimate documentation or proof of identity to apply, and even then this can take some time.

Additionally there have been no confirmed reports that we could find that such requests for a baby’s information are anything but an innocuous – if a little misguided and pointless – attempt to honour Mother’s Day. We would be extremely surprised if any scammer would be attempting to glean information from such posts, especially considering that they would not be able to see the information a mother puts onto her timeline if she has the recommended Facebook privacy settings applied!

With that said, would we post such information about a child onto Facebook? Probably not. Whilst posting it onto your timeline is almost certainly going to be a harmless endeavour, (especially with the correct Facebook settings) unnecessary sharing of personal information is something we rarely advise since identity thieves do lurk social networking sites looking for easy pickings, even though – as we’ve already pointed out – they would need much more information than that given away in these posts.

We’re often warning our readers against sharing too much information on social media, as this information can potentially be accumulated by identity thieves and used against you. But on the flip side of the same coin, spreading misleading and alarmist messages like the ones above is just counter-productive since it adds to the mountain of misinformation about genuine identity theft threats.