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It’s funny that when you go on vacation, you do what you can to make your home appear that someone is still living there, even though the house is going to be empty for the next two or three weeks. You arrange to have your newspapers discontinued, you get a friend to pick up your mail, and you use automated timers to turn lights on and off (at random times) to make it appear that you’re still home.
But to the smart criminal, who might be casing your home, advertising on your Facebook page about your camping trip, Hawaiian vacation, or other excursion is just the sort of information that tells them when they can break in.
Now, it might sound overly paranoid to think that someone is waiting to find out when you are leaving on holidays, but if you think like a criminal, all they need to do is scan through a few hundred Facebook accounts, find some suitable names of people that live in their targeted area, find some key information on their open and public profile page about where they live (and match it up with information available in the telephone book), and learn when and where that person is traveling.
If I know that you’re going to Maui on the Labor Day long weekend, and that you live in Renton, Washington, and I already have your name and address, it doesn’t take much (if you’re a thief) to know when is the best time to strike.
The idea might seem preposterous, but criminals use these details every day to commit crimes, whether if it’s for a home break-in, an office robbery, or some other criminal act. The point is, that personal information just provides more useful details to the criminal elements who are looking for any advantage when planning a crime. Your Facebook account is just one more source of useful information for crooks.
