Burglars Said to Have Picked Houses Based on Facebook Updates

[Dover]

Duh! I'm always so amazed and and even proud that there isn't more of this sort of thing given how easy it is to get and use information from the web:


If you plan to log into your Facebook account and announce to the world that you’re heading to the beach for the weekend, you might want to append the status update with a warning that your home is under 24-hour surveillance, you have a 140-pound Rottweiler who hasn’t eaten in a week and that you own a really good alarm system.

If you don’t, you personal belongings could be fodder for some tech-savvy burglars.

According to New Hampshire’s WMUR Channel 9 News, three local men, Mario Rojas, Leonardo Barroso and Victor Rodriguez, have burglarized more than 18 homes in the Nashua area of New Hampshire simply by checking status updates on Facebook and then pillaging the houses of victims who announced on the social network that they were not home...cont'd


http://bits.blogs.nytimes.com/2010/09/12/burglars-picked-houses-based-on-facebook-updates/?src=me&ref=technology

[Vinca]

1. And it's so handy to be able to scope out the house on Google.

[malaise]

2. If you're stupid enough to post your

personal movements all over the web I say let Darwin sort it out.

[Dover]

4. ...or twitter. How many people love to announce their every move via texting/twitter? n/t

[malaise]

11. They're crazy narcissists who want to be seen

I pity their pathetic lives.

[DaveJ]

3. I hope nobody learns we have jobs

My fiance and I spend 0 daytime hours at home. Keeping fingers crossed.

[divineorder]

6. Sounds Like Common Sense To Me

Why announce to the world that you definitely will be gone for several days? It's too easy these days for thieves to find that out. It's the same advice given about weddings and funerals extended to the web. Thieves read those too and know that the families will not be at home during those hours. Which is why some people have people stay at the house to receive guests and gifts during those events. Or a neighbor watch the house.

[Dover]

7. lol! Actually these days that's a less and less likely scenario. Half of America

is out of a job. And besides, determining who is and isn't away working requires thieves to do a little leg work. So much easier to get a more
reliable sourcing from the comfort of their desk chair.

[DaveJ]

9. So how does FB work like this?

It's my understanding that only friends see your posts on FB. I thought people you don't know have no access. That's the whole idea behind Facebook, I thought. Sometimes I think these broad generalizations are made by people who do not even own a computer. I'm in FB right now looking at people in my town, and I see information only from people who have chosen to share their info with the world. All the article needs to say is, "don't share your FB info with strangers -- you know, there's a setting for that" if whoever wrote the article really cared.

[Dover]

10. I'm not on FB so can't answer. I asked a similar question below.

But I agree that if it's just a matter of changing one's privacy settings then that should be the main message rather than a blanket message about how
dangerous the internet is. But then I'm not very computer savvy so don't really know the full extent of the danger or what is and isn't possible when attempting to gather information.

[frylock]

13. i concur..

people who have een robbed because of FB posts need to either lock down their account so only friends can see their status, or get better friends that won't jack your home while you're away.

[Pithlet]

14. I was wondering the same thing. Do some people have completely open FB profiles?

If they do, I have never seen it. I also wonder about this when see all the fingerwagging about "Be careful what you put on Facebook! Future employers are looking! Tsk tsk!" How can they see it?

[frylock]

12. no shit?

these FB posts crack me up. i'm away from my home M-F from 7:30 to 5:30. you don't need FB to figure that out.

[City Lights]

5. Welcome to Idiot America.

D'oh.

[Dover]

8. I assume this is less likely to apply to those with narrower privacy settings

and selective friends/family options. Wouldn't the Facebook people they got the info from pretty much have to be open sourced (few or no privacy settings?). For instance if someone used Facebook only for family, I don't know how others could get that kind of information about their residence, etc.

I don't know how it works because I don't use these social networking sites.

[dixiegrrrrl]

15. All I can say is

:dunce: :dunce: :dunce: :dunce: Order