Known cases of harm from telling FB your initials and favorite color?

Post date: 2021-04-15 10:45:38

The internet loves little generative memes where you choose from the first column based on your favorite color, the second column based on your birth month, the third column based on your initials, and bam, that's your Wacky 80s Band Name or something. Every time one comes around, someone asserts that you're an utter fool if you participate, because it's basically asking to have your personal data stolen by evildoers. So...is it? Are there any known cases of responses to these memes being used for nefarious purposes?

Note that I am specifically talking about memes like this, that circulate as an image and that invite you to repost it with a comment like "LOL my 80s band name is Rambo and the Gnarly Mallrats."

I'm not talking about viral content that asks you to do much more egregiously risky things, like grant an app access to your entire Facebook account. I know that those exist and cause genuine harm.

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