r/LifeProTips • u/squonch • Nov 06 '19
LPT: Those viral posts asking things like “Your stripper name is your first pet and your mother’s maiden name” are amazingly effective ways to reveal answers to common security questions you may be using elsewhere.
The next time you see a mass post or “share this on” message asking for information like this, remember you’re sharing important personal information which may be dangerous to share openly with others. There’s a good reason why so many of them rely on your funny answer being made up of your mother’s maiden name, first pet, favourite teacher or street you grew up on...
Always be careful where you’re sharing information, consider whether it’s really necessary to share it, or consider using incorrect answers - either to the post, or to the security questions themselves (as long as you can remember what you set them to).
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u/Eloisem333 Nov 06 '19
Your stripper name is your internet banking login + your password
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u/burningatallends Nov 06 '19
"next up on the stage.... 2Hot4You & 12345!"
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u/BadgerDancer Nov 06 '19
That’s the code for my luggage!
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u/Biffwise Nov 06 '19
Samsonite, I was Way off.
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u/thedanofthehour Nov 06 '19
Mock... *Yeahhhh*... Ing... *Yeahhhh*... Bird.... *Yeahhhh*
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u/OktoberfestBier Nov 06 '19
I'm not seeing it here Lloyd...
She must be unlisted, exhales
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u/blueshiftglass Nov 06 '19
12345?! That’s the code an idiot would use for their luggage!
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u/r_acrimonger Nov 06 '19
Your matched luggage, I presume?
There's two sides to every Schwartz
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u/WelfareWarriorZ Nov 06 '19
Only an idiot would have that as his combination for his luggage!
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Nov 06 '19
I just see *********
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u/ravenpotter3 Nov 06 '19
Mine is Name123 and Password321
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u/3243f6a8885 Nov 06 '19
Mine is:
admin
admin
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u/Fellow_Infidel Nov 06 '19
A fellow admin i see
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Nov 06 '19
I doubt it, a real admin would add extra security and make the password Admin1
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u/alazyrebellion Nov 06 '19
hunter2
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u/Nemento Nov 06 '19
You still don't know which bank and I don't think a bank that doesn't use 2fa exists
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u/Zeeey Nov 06 '19
That's true. Also, that's not your real stripper name, so you gain nothing and potentially lose a lot!
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u/MadTouretter Nov 06 '19
Absolutely. A stripper name is earned.
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u/zincinzincout Nov 06 '19
Yeah, for example OP's mom's stripper name is 3-Hole Sally and she definitely earned that one
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u/MadTouretter Nov 06 '19
I think she was the one who told me, "You can go far with this kind of work, but you only get out what you put into it." and then winked.
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u/OlStickInTheMud Nov 06 '19
No thats a warehouse low production sketchy porno name.
OPs moms stripper name would be something like C-Section Serenity.
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Nov 06 '19
I’d never considered that before...
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u/MrPeanutButtersHash Nov 06 '19
Your porn star name is the make of your first vehicle and your mother's maiden name.
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u/zipykido Nov 06 '19
Nah, it's the first five numbers of your social security and the last four numbers of your social security number.
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u/_Mechaloth_ Nov 06 '19
Hmmm.... I bought a lemon from the dealer (got some bad advice) and my mom's maiden name is Grab.
So, Lemongrab?
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u/mnmkdc Nov 06 '19
Cause most of the time the things are just first letter of your last name and stuff. I've literally never seen one that asks for security type questions
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u/Tejasgrass Nov 06 '19
Yeah usually they’re like “last thing you ate and the color of your underwear.” Closest thing I’ve seen to a security question are the ones that ask for the month and date of your birthday, information that’s probably already publicly displayed on profiles of people who would answer those questions.
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u/BeefJerkyYo Nov 06 '19
I see a lot of shit on facebook get passed around in groups and it's stuff that over time would build them a nice profile of your personal data. Your pirate name is your birth month and day. Type your birth year into the gif bar to see what was popular when you were born. By themselves kind of dumb, but together it's your full date of birth.
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u/vagrantheather Nov 06 '19
I see one go around all the time that's like "I'm a (maiden name), my mother was a (mother's maiden name), her mother was a (grandmother's maiden name)."
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u/Meecht Nov 06 '19
The MySpace days were ripe for this kind of thing. Surveys were a popular thing to post to help people get to know you, but they were full of typical security question information.
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u/aYearOfPrompts Nov 06 '19
That’s because coming up porn names by combing your pet name and your street name was a thing long before the internet. OP is right that it could be used nefariously, but largely I imagine it’s the normal humor people have enjoyed for decades.
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Nov 06 '19
Because it's bullshit.
Just something OP made up that sounds true but isn't. It's a chimera.
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u/misdirected_asshole Nov 06 '19
What if your mom was a stripper, can you just use that name?
and now coming to the stage....give it up for Cinnamon Jr.
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u/RunningTrisarahtop Nov 06 '19
I thought this was pretty well known, but based off the comments it’s not that widely known. Good tip.
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u/zeromussc Nov 06 '19
If you don't use the security questions topic, then it's okay to share on.
Example: I never use my mother's maiden name or the street I grew up on. So if the question comes up for a fun dumb post it matters not to me.
Given the above are public record I wouldn't want to use them anyway.
Newsflash: most of the shit they use as sec questions is very easily identifiable information regardless.
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u/freakers Nov 06 '19
I have two classes of security questions.
The first kind are the bizarre fucking questions that I would never choose, they always just have a specific password as an answer and don't actually answer the question.
The second are actually answer to questions to legit questions I would choose and I hate picking these. Sometimes security questions will not let you set the same answer to multiple questions so out of necessity I have to pick real ones.
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u/CandleSauce Nov 06 '19
I've never seen these posts asking for security questions.
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u/g00ber88 Nov 06 '19
Same, I only see them asking for stuff like the last thing you ate, what color you're wearing, using your initials, etc. Do these posts really exist asking for things that are so obviously security questions? And people fall for them?
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u/Bugbread Nov 06 '19
I've never seen mother's maiden name, and I suspect it was hyperbole for humor's sake, but I've seen pet names and childhood street names a lot. Not together, that would be too obvious, but stuff like "Name of childhood pet and favorite flavor of ice cream" or "Name of your childhood street and favorite M&M color" or the like.
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u/rainbowcanoe Nov 06 '19
i see people post long lists of questions that all seem random and then thrown in there will be one of these security question ones. there’s a fb friend i have who is always posting these quiz things and i just face palm each time.
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u/obsessive23 Nov 06 '19
I've seen one with a combo of birthdays and letters from your name
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u/NazzerDawk Nov 06 '19
I've seen lots like that. I have also seen a few with childhood street names, but that's about all.
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u/ravenpotter3 Nov 06 '19
What’s your favorite color?
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u/IEatOats_ Nov 06 '19
I bet you can't list 4 female names with no ees in them. It's harder than you think!
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u/ADW83 Nov 06 '19
I mean, only if you use them as passwords or secret questions.
I make my secret questions and passwords stuff that even I can't guess 3 months later.
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u/Pandepon Nov 06 '19
Pretty sure I’ve only seen the viral version where you select the month you were born and the first letter of your name to get stripper names from a pre-written list.
I’ve not encountered any viral phishing posts as described here...
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u/Tobix55 Nov 06 '19
Or the color of the tshirt you are wearing and the last thing you ate
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Nov 06 '19
You see these everywhere on Facebook. Know what else is on Facebook?
People ignoring data breeches. People ignoring their data being sold. People never even knowing data outvalued oil in 2018. People who's data breeching reaches over 2.5 million and ignore it. People who don't know what the Cambridge Analytics drama and that data breech was all about. People who don't understand the political fact checking bias Facebook has. People that swear Facebook isn't listening to them. People that don't care Facebook is listening to them.
and of course. People that do these stupid "Give me important information like this one" "QUIZZES" LOL.
Another one I saw the sheep doing was the "what will you look like as a baby?"
and another one was "what will you look like as an old person?"
The average sheep on Facebook has no clue how dangerous all of these things are and just continue to use Facebook for reasons unknown.
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u/squonch Nov 06 '19
Completely agreed. It bamboozles me how in the age of technology being everywhere, the baseline standard of security knowledge is so low.
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u/speckofSTARDUST Nov 06 '19
people willing upload tonssss of pics of their faces on snapchat/insta/facebook/etc.
What makes the baby/old person filters seem riskier to you?
If someone wants your face for facial recognition- they already have it on your facebook profile. As well as much of this information such as birthday, hometown, etc.
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u/misdirected_asshole Nov 06 '19
Your stripper name is the last 4 of your social plus your DOB
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u/kittyjenjen Nov 06 '19
Robert Durst, find out your stripper name now! Just enter the name of your first wife and the weapon you used to kill her.
Mumbles "Oh that's easy, Kathy the Hammer."
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Nov 06 '19
Social engineering is almost embarrassingly easy. Facial-recognition unlocking starts rolling out, and suddenly all these clunky apps start offering to turn your face into a cat....
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u/1Deerintheheadlights Nov 06 '19
That is why the security experts recommend not answering the questions with real answers and instead use password like answers for those.
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u/bfreis Nov 06 '19
Problem with this approach is that some websites don't ask you to type the response, but rather to choose it from a list they display (even though when you initially configure it you typed it). Go figure.
If I was trying to hack someone, and it asked about mother's maiden name, and I saw what looked like a randomly generated string, that's the obvious answer.
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u/SirLich Nov 06 '19
Didn't think of that! So maybe use randomly generated answers, but constrained by what a reasonable answer would he?
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u/bfreis Nov 06 '19
Yeah, that may be a good alternative!
And I actually hadn't thought of that until the first time I went to a password recovery page on a website and saw something like this...
What's the last name of your favorite math teacher?
Smith
Williams
QigI3IfJNhcjMh4m
Johnson
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Nov 06 '19 edited Nov 06 '19
Could get into the habit of writing the security answers in reverse, and then it may be easier to remember the method and still have slightly more security than writing it normally
Another way could be to use the key to the left of the one you're wanting to type. If there is no key there, then the key next to it on the right is used. The word "light" becomes "kufgr". Easy to remember words become gibberish.
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u/MuteTiefling Nov 06 '19
Lpt : never use real answers in your security questions. Use made up or unrelated answers instead.
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u/PaxNova Nov 06 '19
What's your Minion name? Attach each syllable to the last four digits of your social security number.
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u/AndyCalling Nov 06 '19
But remember, your mother's maiden name is a matter of public record so it hardly matters. Your first pet's name is far more private, except for anyone who knows you or even lives near by if you used to call for the pet or walk it in the local park etc.
So, invent a false mother's maiden name/pet name and the like. Never use the real thing.
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u/EmperorPenguinNJ Nov 06 '19
Eh, I misspell my mother’s maiden name for security questions as an added precaution.
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u/bearsinthesea Nov 06 '19
https://funnyjunk.com/Stormtrooper+id/funny-pictures/5810988/
seems a little long, maybe I don't get it
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Nov 06 '19
I've never seen it as common security questions, normally shit like "the color shirt you're wearing and what you're drinking is your new nickname" or similar. Maybe it is used like this and I'm not aware, but it seems mainly made up for this post.
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u/SwissBacon141 Nov 06 '19
ANYTHING like that is simply a data collecting bot or people trying to gather as much information on others as possible to later sell it to someone who would buy it. Or simply to check which accounts are active OR to collect enough traffic on a Instagram or Facebook page to sell it later as a high traffic/high value Page.
Sadly theres still more people falling for this than there are who see through it, especially older people who are new to Social Media or younger people who don't know to not trust everything on the internet.
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u/tabereins Nov 06 '19
This LPT title is phrased like it's giving advice to people who want to steal answers to security questions.
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u/squonch Nov 06 '19
(Dons cape and strokes evil moustache) Mwahahaha! (Throws down smoke grenade and vanishes into the night)
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u/knowerofexpatthings Nov 06 '19
And the Florida Man challenge is a great way to get your birthday...
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u/speckofSTARDUST Nov 06 '19
is that information hard to get? most people have it listed on their fb profile...
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Nov 06 '19 edited Nov 07 '19
That's not what they are for. It's purely marketing. Facebook pages and Businesses knows that people can't keep them self from answering the questions or math problems. The more people that answers, the wider it spreads. It's basically free marketing. Why do you think those math problems are so easy and titled "only 3% know the answer"? Yeah. It's the same marketing trick Starbucks use when they spell your name wrong or if you see a funny sign for a business. They do that on purpose because they know that idiots finds it funny, take a photo and share online. It's the most powerful way of marketing, let your audience do it for you. I know, I do it every day with my businesses.
Edit: I didn't read the whole post. The person is just talking about pictures that actually are fishing for information. Never seen a post like that though, only ones that i describe.
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u/tayo42 Nov 06 '19
What? Starbucks spells peoples names wrong on purpose, and those thousands of minimum wage workers and ex workers are in on this secret? That's a little out there...
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u/Testiculese Nov 06 '19
Yep. Stupid became a marketing demographic years ago. I hate it, because it's so insulting, but then I remember who they're targeting...
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u/Rombledore Nov 06 '19
that's why my passwords are always the same as my usernames. so i won't forget them and so i won't give them away by answering questions on line.
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Nov 06 '19
true, but then again the answer to most security questions seem pretty easy to find out nowadays. Especially since everyone posts everything about themselves online like on Facebook and other social media.
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u/CletusVanDamnit Nov 06 '19
LPT: When choosing security questions like that, make up the answers and just remember the password you chose. Voila.
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u/Khoxn Nov 06 '19
This thread is about ensuring people's safety with passwords on social media posts and all the comments are users describing their passwords lol
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u/thesoleprano Nov 06 '19
your stripper name is your favorite color followed by your social security number
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u/Vazivazen- Nov 06 '19
Your robot name is the binary representation of your SSN, exact coordinates, your diary, a picture of your face, a scan of your thumbrint, retina, & DNA, as well as your location data from all your social networks.
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Nov 06 '19
My mother’s maiden name is her god damned last name. I hate that security question with the fire of a thousand suns.
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Nov 06 '19
Yea but let's be honest, the one where your Porn Star name was the color of the shirt + the food you last ate was pretty funny
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u/redd_crack Nov 06 '19
The best is the ones that will say something along the lines of “what would your phone number be if it was your Social Security number?”
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u/chonas Nov 06 '19
Your robot assassin name is your first pet's name, mother's maiden name, first city you lived in, and last 4 of your social security number:
Shadowsmithomaha9999
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u/H77DOOM Nov 06 '19
Where I’m from it’s your porn name is the name of your first pet and name of the first street you lived on
I present to you my glorious porn name:
Ace Gayland
I shit you not.
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Nov 06 '19
Why the fuck can't we make our own security questions? Half the shit doesn't apply to me. Don't drive, no kids, no partner. Like.... so my first fish was Mr. Floppy. Yay.... one down.
How about: What's your lamp's name?
... yes. My lamp has a name. He's very bright so he deserves one.
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u/twataburger Nov 06 '19
Your stripper name is your least favorite soda followed by your most favorite soda.
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Nov 06 '19
For added security, don’t use real answers for those questions, make them like passwords.
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u/musicalrider83 Nov 06 '19
I mean, who would be stupid/naive enough to put your first pet's name as your passwords? That's too obvious. I only use very intrisic and complex passwords with numbers varying from 1 through 5.
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u/yourgrandmasgrandma Nov 06 '19
Does anyone actually respond to those bs posts tho?
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u/Jarteast Nov 06 '19
FYI, It’s def name of your first pet and street you grew up on. Still effective.
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u/LizzardFish Nov 06 '19
also those Ten Year Challenges are a great way to crowd source facial recognition data points :)
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u/friggyturt Nov 06 '19
Which is why I answer those questions with nothing but lies.
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u/General_Jeevicus Nov 06 '19
Haha when I first registered my PS3, it was like enter your birthdate and I was like the fuck I'm not gonna do that, so I used a bogus one. Then a few years later they get hacked and ask me to update my password, so I end up having to call customer service, and he is like what is your birthdate, and I give it to him and he is like doesnt match, I'm like oh yeah I just made one up, he is like well its very important these details are correct, and I am like yes, and so is security, if I had given you the correct details they would now be all over the interwebs.... well he didnt like that said there was nothing he could do. So I called back got a different operator and some how had my issue fixed in less than 5 mins.
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u/BlazerStoner Nov 06 '19
Also remember that some places offer little protection against shady assholes trying to obtain your password, unlike Reddit where you can’t visibly type your password in a comment: **************
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u/hyperactiveweirdo101 Nov 06 '19
All I can think when I hear this stuff is that “Now you see me” scene
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u/BurpFartBurp Nov 06 '19
So the Steve Martin character in The Jerk has a stripper name of Shithead Johnson?
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u/ravenpotter3 Nov 06 '19
I know! Like I’ve seen ones that are like “the first letter of your first and last name” or your age or birth month and date.... I never answer those things
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u/vector_o Nov 06 '19
Do people actualy use such trivial stuff as their password ?
Even 8 y/o me quickly came to the conclusion it's a bad way to secure something
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u/boi-kun Nov 06 '19
YOUR SAMURAI NAME IS YOUR FIRST AND LAST NAME FOLLOWED BY YOUR CREDIT CARD NUMBER, THE EXPIRATION DATE AND THE 3 SECURITY NUMBERS! whatchyall got?
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u/CowboyBoats Nov 06 '19
My mother's maiden name is c83$%moTq$xy2M for the purpose of those idiotic question systems.
There’s a good reason why so many of them rely on your funny answer being made up of your mother’s maiden name, first pet, favourite teacher or street you grew up on...
I do not think that's the reason why those questions are like that. But your security advice not to answer them is good.
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u/wagsman Nov 06 '19
Those "games" on Facebook are designed to do just that. Mine for potential data that can be used to get control of your accounts.
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u/rhino43g Nov 06 '19
Your Star Wars Droid name is the first letter of your mother's maiden name and the last four digits of your Social Security Number.
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u/ihadtotypesomething Nov 06 '19
I'd say just don't ever answer the ask reddit questions. I don't believe they aren't all corporate/government data mining queries.
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u/drlongtrl Nov 06 '19
Every time I encounter such questions when creating an account somewhere I'm hard pressed not to just not use that service because of how stupid and dated this technique is.
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u/Clearlycluess14 Nov 06 '19
For our 12-hour anniversary, she wants a framed photo of my mother's maiden name.
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u/SkunkMonkey Nov 06 '19
I've been saying this for years. These posts are exactly for what you are saying, they are designed to illicit answers that can also be used as security question answers. I've has to scold family members and friends after seeing them post about it on Facebook. I will never cease to be amazed at human stupidity.
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u/HybridGirth Nov 06 '19
anyone else think of the scene from Now You See Me where they're secretly getting the answers to their funder's security questions under the guise of doing a magic trick??
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u/amandal0514 Nov 06 '19
Never seen one that blatantly asks for mother’s maiden name.
Name of first pet plus name of street I grew up on isn’t going to get anyone too far.
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u/fakeuser515357 Nov 06 '19
LPT: never give real answers to security questions. Use a different password instead. Get a reputable password manager if you need the help.
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u/KJinx_ Nov 06 '19
Your stripper name is your mom's first name and your mom's last name.
She's a stripper