Going away? Don’t put your social life on display?

By 2019 it is estimated that there will be around 2.77 billion social network users around the globe, with over 40 million of those within the UK. In light of the recent Facebook and Cambridge Analytica scandal, most of us are now very aware of how social media platforms harvest our personal information. Have you ever considered that an innocent holiday post could leave you vulnerable to a burglary?

Social media has bought a revolution

The revolution we have been through since the advent of social media has not only changed the way we interact with one another but also how we share information about ourselves. There are plenty of positive ways that social media enhances our lives like meeting up with long lost friends, finding out about local events or just meeting people that have similar interests.

However, we can be left vulnerable without realising it, because social media has totally changed the ways in which we commutate and share our lives on an unprecedented scale. While many people who enjoy reading and sharing this information do so for entirely honest reasons, there are also a few who use social media as a resource for gathering information with the intention of committing criminal acts.

Sharing our lives…..maybe a little too much

People seem to love to write about their holidays. We want to tell others about the exotic places we are visiting, the food and drink we are eating, and the glorious weather. Often, we start this process by checking ourselves in at the airport, then at the hotel, or even in a restaurant or bar. In the face of so much ‘sharing’ (which lies at the heart of social media), it seems fine to post a photo of a sun-kissed beach and announce to the world that we are ‘In Spain, having a wonderful time, and looking forward to the next two weeks’. However, if you do any of those things, you’re a burglar’s favourite type of traveller!

The link between social media and crime

In the past, burglars often used obituaries to find out when families would be out of their homes. Now they can use social media and the information within it to target people. It might come as a surprise to know that 78% of burglars use Facebook and Twitter to plan their ‘jobs’. A new survey by the Swinton Group and Yale UK looking into the link between social media posting and crime statistics* has shown that making social media posts can increase the risk of being burgled. Over 76, 805 social media posts relating to upcoming holidays were made in the UK between January 2016 and August 2017. Interestingly, some cities are much more prone to making ‘risky’ social posts than others, with Newcastle, Liverpool, Portsmouth and Blackpool lying at the top.

Being famous doesn’t prevent you being a target. In July 2017, £400,000 of jewellery and designer goods were stolen from former England and Chelsea footballer John Terry’s £5m home after he posted a photo of his ski holiday on social media, revealing to his 3.4 million Instagram followers that he was having a “great few days away skiing with the family”.

Richard Beaven, distribution director at Swinton Group says, ‘oversharing has now become a part of everyday life. Many people are making themselves vulnerable to praying burglars by publicly sharing when they are out of the house, away on holiday and even posting about expensive purchases. Regardless of the information, you share on Facebook, Twitter or Instagram, burglars can piece together key facts about a person by linking information across all platforms.’

Simple steps to prevent holiday crime

So how can you go about making sure that you don’t end up a victim of holiday crime? Well, there are some simple steps that you can take:

• Do not broadcast your holiday on social media, the fewer people that know the better. Don’t check-in at the airport, hotel or resort and save posting your holiday snaps until you get home
• Don’t accept friend requests from strangers
• Lockdown your Facebook privacy settings using Facebook’s privacy shortcuts
• Refrain from sharing personal information on social media. Sharing your phone number, home address, hometown or birthday makes it easier for burglars to locate you and increases your vulnerability to identity theft
• Turn off your social media location feature as this can automatically tag your whereabouts when you post. You can also turn off your phone’s geotag/location function
• Cancel newspapers and redirect mail if possible
• Use timers on lamps in the house that switch on and off in the evenings and that are visible on through windows
• If you have a driveway then keep a vehicle on there, if not then ask if a trusted neighbour would be willing to park their vehicle there

It is estimated that there is a burglary every 40 seconds in the UK, so rather than leaving things to chance when you are on holiday, why not consider investing in CCTV? Last year the Guardian reported that burglars are most likely to be put off from breaking into homes that had CCTV cameras and barking dogs.

Almas Industries are market leaders, innovators, manufacturers and installers of CCTV systems, Biometric Access Control and Intruder alarms. You can arrange your free, no obligation security survey by calling us on 0333 567 6677. If you prefer, you can always send a confidential email via [email protected]

*Research carried out between January 2016 and August 2017 and data sourced from police recorded crime, Home Office