The overwhelming desire to snap away and share your life can come back to get your selfie stick snatched away with a lot of your other belongings. I see innocent mistakes being made online by good people who are unintentionally unlocking their lives to bad people with details contained in commonly shared parts of our lives.
Here’s what makes the list and how a crook can take you:
Home Address
Thieves fish through social media looking for suckers willing to post their address along with life’s regular details that make it easy to know when you and won’t be home. Then they use Google Maps Streetview (learn how to hide your home from Google Maps) to case where you live… how nice is your home and how easy does it look to gain access.
Vacation plans
When you leave enough information about your vacation plans, you are telling potential criminals the following. The bigger the bragger.. the bigger the target. Which status update sounds more attractive to a thief?
A) My sister agreed to take the kids while we are away for our two weeks at the Four Seasons in the Maldives this Friday! Thanks, sis!
B) Vegas baby! See you tonight!
C) Getting married in Hawaii in August? Count us in! Wouldn’t miss it for anything!
Answer: All of them are attractive and spark a crook to sniff through social media to more specific dates, home address and potentially rob you while you are away!
Related: Why you are 18 times more likely to get scammed on social media
High School mascot
When you share your school mascot, you are telling people online part of your personal history that can be traced back to discovering your home address. Security experts say to avoid using your real school name when used as a security question and instead make one up. (i.e. Hogwarts)
Concert tickets
You can hardly believe those Rascal Flatts tickets fell into your hands and have to share them online.. only problem with that is that anyone can simply copy the barcode from concert tickets and get there ahead of you and take your seats. The first ones who get through the gate get in.. then you show up and are denied entry as you try to explain that your tickets are legit.
New video games or software
Hot games can be downloaded like any popular software. Oftentimes, the process to verify your purchase and register the game to work involves entering the serial number from the box. While many are shielded inside the box, other times they are outside of the box where stealthy shoplifters snap photos of the serial numbers and then register the game. You come along and buy the game, then go to register and it does not work.
More ways to take back your privacy:
- Best VPNs for Browsing the Internet Privately
- Best Antivirus Security Software 2022
- 4 Easy Ways to Block Robocalls Fast
- How Your Security Camera Can Be Hacked
- How to Stop Amazon from Sharing Your Internet with Neighbors
- Best Alternatives to Big Tech Beast Google
- Map buried inside your phone reveals where you have been and photos you snapped there
- How to Give Ring a Quick Privacy Checkup
- Don’t make this one mistake when getting rid of your old phone
- Working from Home? How Your Boss May Be Watching You
- Real-life Spy Catcher Sweeps My House and Finds Everything
- New Ways to Stop Robocalls & Texts
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