Identity theft lands woman in Guinness World Records
A family of a 21-year-old woman has expressed shock over a story that claimed she had given birth to fourteen children from fourteen different fathers.
There is nothing as annoying as having your identity stolen, and worse, having people call or message you because they saw your photo linked to information that is not true, especially if the information ends up making headlines all over the world.
Karena Bennet, 21, has become the latest victim of one of the worst hoaxes in history.
In a story posted on a number of publications, including Pyzam, Bennet’s photo was used for a story where a woman called Sullivan claimed to have given birth to fourteen children with fourteen different fathers. The story had Bennet’s picture with her new born child in her arms.
Sullivan claimed to be proud of herself for making it into the Guinness Book of World Records.
“My mother always told me that I was lazy and worthless, and that I would never accomplish anything in my life. Now, I’ve shown everyone that she was wrong, and that I can even be the best in the world when I put my mind to something. In fact, I’ve just accomplished something that no one had done before!” she was quoted as saying in pyzam.
However, according to Free Press, Bennet's grandmother, Pauline Rindos, said the article was a hoax.
"When it got on Facebook, everybody and their uncle knew right away that it wasn't her. It was like, "Oh my God." I'm having a heart attack and a half. Where and how did they get this picture?" the grandmother said.
Bennet is just one of the millions of people around the world who are victims of identity theft.
South Africa’s queen of Gospel, Rebecca Malope, recently had her share of identity theft.
“The allegations that Dr Rebecca Malope has been arrested and requires donations from the public to make bail are false. Dr Rebecca Malope’s phone number has been hacked by scammers who are posing as her and requesting money from her fans; her colleagues, her associates and family through Whats App under false pretenses,” Malope’s management said in a statement.
Because we know how much it sucks to fall prey to identity thieves, we bring you five ways in which you can protect yourself from identity theft. However, we do not guarantee that your identity will never be stolen.
- Have a strong password on all your accounts. A strong password is one that contains words, characters, and numbers.
- Don’t open spam or click on any shady links
- Have theft protection software installed on your computer and smart phone
- Do not give out your personal information like addresses, phone numbers etc
- Never click on the “save password” option after entering your password
Have you been a victim of identity theft? Share your experience in the comments section below.