Social network at your own risk

Posting status updates and making other comments on your social network could get dangerous, especially if you have defaulted on bank payments. Mind you, if you have not paid up but your status on Facebook says that you are off on a foreign trip to Hawaii, you could get into serious trouble.

Yes, financial institutions have started using social media to check customer profiles, analyse tastes and preferences, assess credit worthiness, and even chase down defaulting borrowers. Some banks use the skills of ‘collection officers’ who are not required to be adept at social media application to help banks trace loan defaulters. It is practice widely followed in the West as these social network posts and updates provide early warning signals about a customer's financial status. 

Banks are also using networking sites to track business activities of exporters. If an organisation receives lot of negative feedback on its products and services, it may have an impact on its ability to pay future obligations. So this data may be used as one of the parameters to assess credit worthiness of an organisation.

This is a good idea but what is the proof of authenticity. If accounts get hacked or if there is usage of a fake ID, how will that help? And on a lighter note, maybe they should have tracked the social network of Vijay Mallya, maybe they could have got a hint about what’s in store!