Post about your holiday on Facebook - and get burgled!
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| The Digital Criminal |
The Co-operative Group has also issued its own pertinent advice to customers about not revealing that you are away from home on social media websites like Facebook, Twitter, and Foursquare. This comes following surveys conducted by the Co-op revealed that 51% of children regularly update their social media accounts to say when they are due to go on family holidays, alerting potential burglars to the fact their home is empty.
It's not just the children either. Older holidaymakers are likely to be particularly vulnerable, due to the growing availability of wifi connections in hotels and resorts. This is allowing people to keep updating their accounts while abroad and inevitably raises the awareness that the user is away from home.
The burglar planning to rob your home can search Facebook for keywords like ‘going on holiday’, ‘packing my case’ and ‘checking in at airport’.
Trevor Davis, Director of Retail Distribution for The Co-operative Travel, explained:
“It took seconds to find people with updates stating when they would be away, with details revealing enough about their location and family to make finding their actual address a simple task."While it may be difficult to stop young people posting information on social media websites about the big things in their lives like holidays and big-nights out, it is possible to protect their updates on Facebook and other such sites, be aware of who they add as 'Friends' and to explain to them the importance of not revealing too much online.
Update friends with holiday details after, rather than during, your trip.
Read Cyber-kids increase holiday burglary risk warns report on the Co-operative Group website!
Related information: See also Burglars using social networks to target people at the Legal and General website.
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