Call this a #protip for social media use. If you’re helping your grandmother count her life savings, don’t try to impress your friends by snapping a picture of it and posting it on Facebook, particularly when your home address is on your Facebook profile.
That’s exactly what a 17-year-old Australian girl did while helping her 72-year-old grandmother. Thankfully, the masked robbers armed with knives and a club broke into her own house and robbed her 47-year-old mother instead. It was her mom’s house that was on her Facebook page.
As Jolie O’Dell at Venture Beat put it, “Use the sense God gave a horse and don’t share your location, or anyone else’s, publicly on the Internet. Ever.”
Facebook and social media in general is a window into our lives. Privacy is a big concern for many, but there are those (the younger generations in particular) who have grown up with much of their lives already exposed. They don’t have the same fear of privacy intrusion and security that others have and are ripe to be preyed upon by those who see social media as an invitation to gather information for more nefarious reasons.
Related articles
- Home invasion after cash stash posted on Facebook (news.com.au)
- Idiot teenager’s gaffe proves we have no clue about Facebook privacy (venturebeat.com)
- Girl posts cash pile image on Facebook, masked men raid house within hours (geek.com)
- Facebook Photo of a ‘Large Sum of Cash’ Leads to Robbery (mashable.com)
- Masked bandits rob WRONG HOME after teenager posts picture of grandmother’s savings on Facebook (dailymail.co.uk)
- Woman robbed after Facebook posting of cash (news.com.au)
- Facebook photo of a pile of cash leads to home invasion (theverge.com)
