Burglars go ‘shopping’ on Facebook
August 28, 2009
A report penned by a former burglar for Legal and General says that many criminals are using social networking sites to ‘shop’ for victims.
‘The Digital Criminal’, written by Michael Fraser, reports that many people using social networking sites like Twitter and Facebook are too careless about giving out information that could be potentially useful to burglars.
In his report Fraser says that 38% of social networkers will post details of holiday plans in status updates and will discuss those plans away from the security of their own pages.
Fraser said: “I call it ‘internet shopping for burglars’. It is incredibly easy to use social networking sites to target people, and then scope out more information on their actual home using other internet sites like Google Street View, all from the comfort of the sofa.”
According to Legal and General it is the 16 – 24 year old age group that is most consistently posting sensitive information up on to the web. Student houses or homes with teenagers are most at risk of being burgled.
The findings warn that crime related to internet use could increase dramatically in the U.K. as more and more people communicate through social networking sites. Facebook already has 8.5 million users in the U.K. and Twitter is used by 2.4 million.
The rise in crime could also mean a rise in insurance premiums say Legal and General.
Thanks to www.moneywise.co.uk for the above quotes, for more information on this article please visit their website.
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