FOMO Facilitates Phishing: Why That Cool New Trend Might Be a Trap

Ten years ago, we were all filling out Facebook quizzes with questions like “What was your first concert?” or “What’s your favorite color?” Cute, right?

Then came the “10-Year Challenge,” – where everyone was supposed to post a photo of themselves from a decade ago next to one from today.  A nostalgic moment? Maybe.  A clever way to gather training data for facial recognition? Also maybe. 

Last year, the trend was AI-generated LinkedIn summaries – sometimes courtesy of third-party platforms that would scrape your public posts and serve up a glorified mirror of your best self.  And now, in 2025, the “in” thing is creating an AI-generated action figure of yourself by uploading photos, hobbies, and little details about what makes you you.

You might be thinking: “What do all these things have in common?” If it’s not immediately obvious to you, well… that’s the problem.

Each of these viral moments – some innocent, some a little more shady – are opportunities for someone to gather pieces of your identity.  Not by hacking you, but by watching you voluntarily hand it over.

Let’s not mince words: FOMO facilitates phishing.

The Fear of Missing Out makes us want to join in.  Post that meme.  Share that AI image.  Tag ourselves in the latest trend.  It makes us feel connected – which is powerful in an increasingly hybrid, online-heavy world where community can feel out of reach.  But here’s the catch: what you’re often sharing are the answers to security questions.  The details that only you know – or at least should.  Your pet’s name.  The street you grew up on.  That favorite teacher.  The little things that someone could weaponize to impersonate you.

How hard would it be for someone with a grudge – or just an enterprising scammer – to take your AI action figure and drop it into an image doing something illegal or humiliating? Or to create a fake social media profile that looks so much like yours, even your closest friends wouldn’t blink?

It’s not paranoia.  It’s pattern recognition. And, like the old saying says, just because you're paranoid doesn't mean someone isn’t out to get you.

At this point, most of us get notified of a new data breach from a firm we do business with every few days – and lately most of them don’t even bother to offer credit monitoring.  Our names, addresses, phone numbers, and even partial SSNs are floating around out there.  But what’s not as easy to find are the quirks – the stuff you’re proudly inserting into your personalized action figure or personality quiz.  Your go-to coffee order.  The books you pretend to read.  The name of the dog you grew up with.  And that’s exactly the kind of information that, when paired with everything else, completes the jigsaw puzzle that is you.

Listen, I’m not saying don’t ever join the fun.  I get the appeal.  I’m as susceptible to a well-timed pop culture trend as anyone.  Heck, I even Funko Popped myself a few years ago – but I did it without uploading photos or feeding data to some LLM with a mystery for governance. I just picked items from a list of generic traits.

Community is important.  Connection is important.  But let’s not forget that data privacy is important, too.  And not every viral trend is worth the cost of participation.

So go ahead, admire that slick new AI-generated action figure of your buddy.  Just think twice before uploading your own face, interests, and personal quirks to make your own.  Because you’re not just making a toy – you might be building a roadmap for someone who wants to become you.

Let’s be smarter out there.

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This article was written by David Danto and contains solely his own, personal opinions. David has over four decades of experience providing problem-solving leadership and innovation in media and unified communications technologies for various firms in the corporate, broadcasting and academic worlds including AT&T, Bloomberg LP, FNN, Morgan Stanley, NYU, Lehman Brothers and JP Morgan Chase. He is a Principal Analyst at TalkingPointz and can be reached at DDanto@talkingpointz.com