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Twitter users at risk from ID thief due to new craze

The latest trend to grab micro-blogging site Twitter involves members posting their 'porn star names' made by combining the name of their first pet and that of the first street they lived on.

As with any new trend on the site, thousands are already twitting away their details and sharing their amusing-looking names with friends, unaware that a major online security hole lies in the phenomenon.

This is because a lot of websites use such information as part of members' security and those participating may be compromising their own online security as a result by making it easy for ID theft crooks to attack.

Variations of the porn star name phenomenon combine a number of these security-related questions such as mother's maiden name and childhood hero and Twitter has already warned members to be careful about what they put out.

Hollywood actress Salma Hayek's email account was recently hacked into by crooks after they reportedly managed to guess correctly the answer to her security question.

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