A SHENZHEN resident called the police after receiving calls from a telemarketer in Hainan Province, which made her suspicious that her personal information had been leaked, the Shenzhen Evening News reported yesterday.

    The resident, surnamed Ran, received several calls from the telemarketer recommending a gym in Hainan. She had traveled to Hainan last year.

    “It gets easier to collect and transfer people’s personal information following the development of Internet technologies,” said a police officer with the city’s public security bureau.

    He said that residents might accidentally give away their names, ID numbers, phone numbers and addresses when shopping or chatting online, sending emails or printing documents, and that their information could be used by scammers or salespeople.

    People should double check the URLs of shopping websites and be careful when they are asked to fill out information about bank accounts and passwords online. They should also properly dispose of express delivery papers, train and flight tickets and shopping receipts that contain their personal information.

    When asked to provide a copy of their ID cards, people should write down the purpose of the copy on it to avoid the copy being used for another reason. Jobseekers are not advised to provide detailed personal information on their resumes.

    Additionally, people should avoid putting their personal information on social media and should obscure their personal information when posting pictures of train tickets or boarding passes online. (Zhang Yang)