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I read your rules about what not to do, but I don’t get what anyone can do with ur mother’s maiden name. Can you tell
me? I am curious?
There are a couple of reasons for not giving out your mother’s maiden name.
This is often used as a prompt question for websites that you log onto. Like on websites where you sign up and provide a username as well as a password. They sometimes ask you to choose a hint question and its answer so that you can reset your password later if you forget it. Your mother’s maiden name is one of the common hint questions. So, if someone knows your username (which is often displayed in chats, etc) and your mother’s maiden name, they can get around the password and access your account (even change your password, hint question and answer, etc).
The second reason is that your mother’s maiden name is one more way to find out who you are (and possibly, where you live, etc), through a genealogical search where people can search for information about your family tree.