Don't Share These Three Things Online If You Don't Want To Be A Target For Thieves
Social media may be one of the best technological advances of recent times for most people, but it can make you a target for thieves if you aren't careful. For example, sharing these three things can encourage thieves to break into your home:
Your Vacation Plans
You should never share your vacation plans because thieves may use them to target your house. Imagine broadcasting that you are going on a vacation, where you are going, how long the vacation will take and who you are going with. This is all the information a criminal needs to target your house when nobody is around. If you want to share the excitement of your vacation, do it with your close friends in the real world, and not the virtual ones. If you must share your vacation information on social media, then wait until you are back from your vacation.
Expensive New Purchases
This is another classic category of things you should never post online if you don't want to become a target of thieves. It's understandable to be excited by your new top-of-the-range gaming rig, your future-proof home theater or your newest painting. However, you aren't the only one who will be excited by the purchases if you announce them on social media, burglars will be licking their lips waiting for a chance to pounce on your home. Therefore, when you are excited with an expensive new purchase, you have to choose between announcing it on social media and exposing it to thieves and keeping it to yourself so that you can use it for many years.
Your Geolocation Data
Lots of online services, including social media services, have tools that automatically recognize your location and upload online. It gets even more dangerous if you have synced several social media sites so that data from one site is automatically uploaded to the other sites. If you do that, then anybody can go online and know when you have checked into an airport, arrived at your hotel or even when you are out of the country. The only way to protect yourself from this kind of targeted attack is to know the security and privacy features of all sites you visit and ensure that they aren't sharing your location with everybody with an internet connection.
Hopefully, the tips above will protect you from being a target for criminals who are constantly scouring the web for soft targets. If you do get robbed, follow your home insurance company's reporting policy to get compensation for your lost item.
