Safe Social Media Usage Tips: Be careful what you post online, it could attract criminals
Many people post on social networks to share information with friends and family, to have conversations, and to show the world how their lives are going. However, when you post online, always remember how key safe social media usage is. It’s important to remember that people other than your intended audience could see your posts. Unfortunately, criminals frequently look to social media for opportunities to rob unsuspecting victims. Police in Philadelphia say that a man’s social media posts about a jewellery inheritance led to a recent armed robbery. Three men wearing ski masks and armed with pistols broke into the home of a 19-year-old man, threatened the man and demanded jewellery and valuables. According to police, the suspects mentioned during the robbery that they had targeted the victim after seeing several Facebook and Instagram posts he had made about recently inheriting some expensive jewellery.
The victim and several others in the home were unhurt during the robbery and the suspects fled the scene with two gold chains, a Rolex watch and cell phones. They have not been caught by police.
This crime demonstrates the importance of safe social media usage.
Be Careful What You Post Online: Safe Social Media Usage Tips
It is very important that you focus on safe social media usage and that you are always careful with what you post on the Internet. Even if you have strict privacy settings on your accounts, the information that you post can still get out. The recent robbery in Philadelphia is far from the first time a criminal has used social media posts to plan a robbery.One of the most common ways that criminals use social media to commit crimes is by researching when people won’t be home and taking this opportunity to break into their properties.
By sharing holiday plans in real-time online, you let criminals know that you’ll be out of town for a while. They can use this information to rob your home when they know you won’t be around.
A good safe social media usage tip is to share vacation details after the fact, once you have arrived home safely. Tell individual friends and family members in person the dates that you’ll be away and don’t post these details online.
What other safe social media usage tips can you use to protect yourself? By ensuring that you have a monitored security system installed that will alert you (and the authorities) if a crime takes place at your property while you are away. A home alarm system that also includes video surveillance camera monitoring is an even better set up. This way, even if you are away from home, your property will be watched over by a central monitoring station. In the event of a crime or other trouble conditions, both you and the authorities will be notified right away.