Admit it. Your Facebook or Twitter status has bragged about the sweet trip you’re taking, your latest purchase, and what awesome restaurant you chose for lunch. While social networking can be a really positive way to stay connected, the information you share on your favorite social networking site may hurt you.
Take this Arizona man, for example. After announcing he was going on vacation, he returned to find his home had been broken into and thousands of dollars of video equipment had been stolen.
The information you share on your social networking pages can be a wealth of information to criminals. When you say where you’re going for dinner, it’s easy to deduce you won’t be home. Much like the newspaper funeral announcement chasers of yesteryear (who targeted loved ones that would surely be at the funeral), Facebook and Twitter can make you vulnerable to criminals.
And it’s not just status updates that can dangle the carrot in front of criminals. A picture is worth a thousand words. While the subject of your photo may be your house party guests from last month, thieves may be looking at your flat screen TV in the background.
Teenagers are particularly susceptible to over sharing. They have no problem posting their name, face, school, and city of residence online, without the realization that they become even more vulnerable to predators.
Captain Karen Ruff of Waukesha County Sheriff’s Department is part of a Cyber Unit and says adults often over share online. “They’re putting their life history online,” says Ruff. “They’re putting how old they are, what their date of birth is, all the different places that they’ve worked, the dates that they worked there, their children’s names, their children’s dates of birth. When you start putting that much information out there it makes it that much easier for a thief to take over your life or to commit identity theft.”
To help protect the community from these online criminals, why not consider a criminal justice program. With your education you can share important social networking precautions with others and help ensure a safer community for everyone.