How Thieves Are Using Social Media To Target Homes
In our digital age, staying connected has become easier than ever. When you go on vacation, you have the opportunity to text pictures to your family and even communicate “face to face” via video calling. If, however, you want to share your trip with more than just a close handful of people, you might be tempted to put your photos on social media or “check in” at the airport or hotel on Facebook or another social media site.
While your friends will likely enjoy your beach view or mountaintop photos, thieves will like seeing these pictures for a whole different reason. Tricky burglars have been using social media sites to get an idea of when homes will be vacant, making them easy targets for a big-scale robbing.
Odds are, if you are posting photos of an international destination you will be away from home for more than a couple days. This gives thieves the chance to trace your digital footprint to find your home. You may think that you do not have any personal information online that robbers could use to find your home, but if your friends posted a picture from your home with location information in it, that could be enough. With that information and a little poking around Google Street View, they can pinpoint your home. Monitoring for a day will confirm what they suspected- your home is temporarily vacant.
To protect yourself from becoming the prey of an online target seeker, the best thing you can do is wait until you have returned home to post your pictures.
Should a tech-savvy thief thwart all of your efforts to safeguard your home, would you be able to rebuild your life? Contact Hoffman Brown Company in Sherman Oaks for all of your California homeowner’s insurance needs. We are here to get you the coverage you need to enjoy your vacation stress free!
