Do you have an "official" birthday?

Vissos, I hadn't thought about a 'sacrifice' mobile. Very few people know my mobile number but I ordered something online and the company insisted on having it so that they could text me about delivery. I then started getting texts about betting (something I never do) so they must have sold my number.

Well I have learned a lot this morning! I have always given my real d o b and mobile number- never given my landline number though. Unless you have caller ID on landline you never know who is on the other end. At least with the mobile you can choose to answer! I always thought you had to be honest on these things or someone will have you for fraud!! How naive!!

I ve never used a different birthdate I guess it s out there ever since I went on the Internet hundreds of years ago so not much point in changing now

I never give my mobile number as on my old one I ended up with scads of PPI or accident claim texts...ugh.

Except for trusted companies' delivery information when buying something, I always put a wrong digit in my landline.

Also, never use your mother's real maiden name. That's an ages old security question and many banks etc have dropped it now.

I feel very lucky having shopped online since 1999 and no problems. Use Paypal almost exclusively.

I use a made up birthday on Facebook for privacy reasons. My sister noticed!!

What a great idea. I shall do this from now on. And I like the phone number idea too.. Thank you.

Since there are 365 days in the year, and everyone is between 0-115 years of age, I'm quite happy to stick to my actual DOB. I am more concerned about potential pin-number theft, but only use sites I trust.

yes I have always had an "online" birthday

Its actually a family members birthday so it's easy to remember (you often need to remember it to get back into stuff online) but if it was used maliciously it wouldn't match up to my name.

Skweek1 you never use your pin online anyway?

The idea of a second birthday date sounds like a good idea, it's something I have never thought about. What I do hate is when I fill in a guarantee form for a product which then goes on to ask details of family income, number of cars, holidays etc. At this point I give up and hope the thing doesn't break down or that I am covered anyway by the place where I bought it. I already get lots of letters from companies when my car or house insurance is due so presumably my details have been passed on by my present insurer or from an internet search. Big Brother is always watching!

I would be slightly more concerned about passwords, than about birthdates, though I take the point.
My passwords are very unusual, and rotated through various sites regularly.
I usually remember which one it is, as there is an order in which they are used (which isn't overly obvious).

DS1 put me on to an app called 1Password which gives you access to long encrypted passwords. You gain access to them via one password which he recommends as three random words eg purplepighair. Then you can cut and paste into the site you are using.
Incidentally I had the wrong date of birth on my passport for ten years. Their mistake, not mine. Didn't cause any problems and I travelled all over the world with it. Worrying really!

Didn't realise how naive I am about online security. Thanks for all the tips everyone. It's a bit scary though how vulnerable we are.

Computerised systems won't accept my phone number which only has 10 digits.

Friends keep sending me links to online quizzes, you have to log in via your facebook account, which gives them access to all your information. I never log into them and I have asked friends to stop sending them to me. I am always very careful about what information I put into a website or give out over the phone. I am particularly wary of the ones who say they are not trying to sell you anything but just doing a survey. I usually ask them how much they are going to pay me for doing the survey as they are going to make money selling the information - they hang up.

I'm afraid I've never thought of doing any of these things. I'm very wary on the phone - when DH answers a cold call, I'm dancing round him, hissing "Don't tell them anything!" - but a bit of an innocent online. I'll be more careful in future.

Something they mentioned in the article was not to accept friends requests on Facebook from a name you don’t recognise, as they will not only be able to see your dob, but, for instance, if your uncle is one of your Fb friends, his surname is likely to be your mother’s maiden name (although as Lewlew says, banks don’t seem to use that security question much these days).

Sunseeker, like you, I always ask the telephone surveys how much they will be paying for my time. They do seem to lose interest quite quickly then!

Great hints,have never really thought about it before. Many thanks

What a good idea. I have recently started using another date I can always remember so will do this for anything to do with the internet from now on! Thanks for the advice. As a blogger, I also have to have another age for some blogging sites as some of them don't seem to go any earlier than 1960! x

Ramblingrose Companies House no longer shows the day in the dob just the month and year. Recent change though.

My real area dialling code IS 01234

madamecholet, what a good idea. I used to receive 10s of calls weekly on my last landline so when I moved I stopped giving my landline number to companies. I made myself several years OLDER on facebook and twitter - funny, I never thought of going younger.

Companies, groups etc mostly sell our details onto others so its best to be careful. I may buy a £4.99 tescos mobile if I ever need a number for companies who insist on ordering online.

Be careful out there....

Just to be controversial (that's me!), I think people worry too much about these things. I'm a dedicated comper - I enter at least 100 online competitions every day. Most of these ask for details such as full name, full postal address, phone number, date of birth and of course email address. Apart from the odd junk phone call, I've never had any trouble as a result of giving out this information. Have to admit though, I usually knock 10 years off my age - not for security reasons but because I think they might not want to give prizes to old fogeys like me!

I do have different e-mail addresses as I do a lot of competitions on line and this keeps the inevitable junk out of my main account. I have a few passwords, most of which are the English spellimg of Arabic words. I never give my landline number but only my mobile as I don't answer calls from withheld or unknown numbers. I do, however, have a 'comping' birthdate, not for security but bacause I have a strong suspicion that companies are looking for winners rather younger than me, so I knock quite a few years off. ?

It seems others have the same idea as me regarding knocking a few (or even a lot) of years off our date of birth. ?

My DH's Mother's surname, which he was given as a middle name happened to be the same as the town where he was born and the family lived. His grandfather (DM's DF) started a business under his own name, which my DH later inherited and ran. SO:

Mothers maiden name = XYZ
Middle name = XYZ
Place of Birth = XYZ
First School = XYZ Primary
Senior school = XYZ High School
Company name = XYZ, The Joiners

Easy to remember but caused some disbelief when he was asked for the full set of details.