Thieves, cons and scammers may be watching you online
— -- You're on summer vacation, enjoying time away. But at home, burglars are making quick work of your house. They've read your social-networking updates and know that you're out of town.
Google Street View helped them scope your house. The pictures of your home's interior you posted online, say on Flickr.com, help them find high-ticket items quickly.
Sound far-fetched? Such events are becoming increasingly common. A careless Twitter message recently led to the burglary of an Arizona man's house.
So, before you leave town, take precautions. More information about you is available than you realize. And those Facebook, MySpace and Twitter friends? They may be wolves in sheep's clothing.
Use care in what you share
Social-networking sites are designed for sharing plans with your friends and family, but posting information about upcoming trips is unwise.
Instead, you can send information in private messages. Tell recipients not to mention your vacation online.
You probably trust most of the people on your friends' list, but your information may be available outside of your network. That means virtually anyone can see it. They can then piece together other information gleaned from the Internet.
Likewise, you may want to share vacation photos, but this lets everyone know you're not home.
That doesn't mean you can't upload photos from the road. Just restrict who can see the photos. And watch out for GPS data that may be embedded in them.
Photos of your home may be online
Look at photos that you have posted from a stranger's perspective. It may have seemed like a good idea to show off your 50-inch HDTV, but now it is an incentive to thieves. They'll know where to look for the set. Remove or hide these pictures.
You may find photos of your home's interior on Zillow.com. Maybe you uploaded them yourself. Or, someone else could have done it for you. Claim your house on Zillow and remove any interior photos.
On Zillow, you'll need to register first. Then, navigate to the page for your home. Click Add/Edit Photos above the photos. On the next page, you'll see the photos. Click Remove on the ones you want to remove. Check that you agree to Zillow's terms. Click Save Changes.
