Tips for protecting your identity online

SALT LAKE CITY — You may not think twice about sharing intimate details about your life on social media, but experts say your personal info could be at risk.

KSL’s Tamara Vaifanua shows us how you can keep your private details, private.

With a simple internet search, scammers can pull up your personal information and steal, share or sell your data without your knowledge.

With a few strokes, your personal information can be compromised.

“That’s where it all starts. Behind the scenes,” said Mark Kapcynski, who is with OneRep, an online service that scrubs your personal information and data from the internet. “I’m just putting in my address to get access to this cool thing, a movie trailer or something right?”

He said your personal info can end up either on the dark web or Google.

“It’s so easy now to do a Google search and find information linking to where you live, your phone number.”

Fraudsters build a profile off of that info and can bypass security questions that a bank or credit card company may have.

So, how can you protect yourself?

Kapczynki suggests not putting your real address and creating a fake identity to use when you’re online.

“Create maybe two or three of these so you (can say) I use this one for banking information, this one just fun on the internet, this one I use for shopping.”

Next, Google yourself. Be prepared to see your info pop up on hundreds of sketchy websites.

You can try to remove it yourself or get professional help.

“This is actually the business we’re in. We’ve automated the process to remove you from over 200 of these sketchy websites. An individual just can’t keep up. It’s too much,” Kapczynki said.

You may remove your info from those websites, but it could resurface six months later. OneRep offers you a free scan where you can see what websites have your personal info.

They did a scan for Tamara. She said it was eye-opening as 104 websites containing her personal information popped up.