Burglary Ring Uses Facebook To Target Victims

UPDATE: Jeff Jarvis has posted additional information on the alleged "Facebook burglaries."

Jarvis writes on his blog BuzzMachine,

I emailed Nashua, NH detective Dan Archambault, who told me that only two of the cases involved Facebook and in each case, “one or two of the suspects were Facebook friends with the respective homeowners. They basically had access to the walls and could read that the families were away on vacation. The information was only available to friends and the Facebook Places feature was NOT a part of this. And finally my advice to Facebook users is carefully pick your friends and watch what you post.”

Read his full post here.

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Police in New Hampshire busted a burglary ring that targeted people's homes using Facebook status updates, reports WMUR Manchester.

According to WMUR, "[i]nvestigators said the suspects used social networking sites such as Facebook to identify victims who posted online that they would not be home at a certain time."

Facebook launched a location-sharing app called "Places" in August. The service was meant to be an easy way for the social network's users to share their locations with one another, but some are worried "Places" might share too much (More about Facebook Places here. To learn how to disable Facebook Places, click here).

"Be careful of what you post on these social networking sites," Captain Ron Dickerson cautioned, according to WMUR. "We know for a fact that some of these players, some of these criminals, were looking on these sites and identifying their targets through these social networking sites."

Police have arrested three men, Victor Rodriguez, Mario Rojas and Leonardo Barroso, believed to be responsible for more than 50 break-ins. WMUR reports that, as a result of the bust, as much as $200,000 in stolen property was recovered.

The now-defunct website Please Rob Me was set up to warn social media users of the potential dangers of over-sharing online. "The danger is publicly telling people where you are. This is because it leaves one place you're definitely not... home," the site explained.

A similar website, I Can Stalk U, exposes Twitter users' locations using the public geotags from recently uploaded Twitpics.

See a report on the New Hampshire burglaries in the video below. (via NECN.com)

WATCH:

Comments

[Scent]

09:56 AM on 09/15/2010

I Have tought computers to kids for 8 years and always amde them awayre of burglars being able to target victims online. And so have many others. - And now THIS is NEWS?

[Meldy1]

08:01 AM on 09/14/2010

So beware and look out!Don't trust anyone except family members.

[Cybersedan]

04:36 PM on 09/13/2010

How about a sting where I post on fb that I'm away on vacation and a crook enters to the wide waiting barrel of a .45 acp? I can't believe people can simply accept that if you inadvertently let people know you are not at home its your fault you got burglarized.

[David Ehecatl Carroll]

07:21 PM on 09/13/2010

Of course its not the victim's fault, but a prudent person takes what precautions are available to prevent being victimized.

[Waterphoneman]

12:55 PM on 09/13/2010

This looks ripe for a sting operation. Have someone brag about their wealth and that they are leaving on a long trip and have some police waiting.

[SurryElle]

09:06 AM on 09/13/2010

um...wow. I'm not really surprised but still a little saddened to see this happening. Maybe we should go back to old fashioned e-mail or something...

[centsable]

09:31 PM on 09/12/2010

Technology today...remember crooks would just look at the obituary in the newspaper?

[RogueTRex]

11:01 AM on 09/13/2010

Those were the days...

[RenoSage]

09:25 PM on 09/12/2010

Not only Facebook needs to be watched, but unless you "opt out" Facebook will spill over onto
Yahoo. It will even give out your e-mail address. I think it is insidious. People will post
the most trivial stuff.

[Wombaticus]

07:34 PM on 09/12/2010

Facebook was originally created with the idea of communicating only with your friends and family. Someplace along the line the Greed Motive took over and changed the default settings so that it opened your info up to anyone.
Everyone CAN set their privacy settings so that only friends and family can see your info. It is NOT hard to do. And I think FB is working to get set to give default close control over personal info again.

[miamia25]

07:24 PM on 09/12/2010

I already knew this would happen.

[AndyWright68]

06:50 PM on 09/12/2010

It is your responsibility to protect your property. If you get robbed you have no one else to blame but yourself. If you help thieves by giving them your itinerary then you deserve the results and your insurance company should deny your claim.

[artist-53]

07:20 AM on 09/14/2010

No one deserves to be robbed.

1- The FB user may not understand how to go about setting privacy prefs. Or understand how important those privacy/security functions are.

2-, Many times, kids will post info to their friends not fully being aware of the potential consequences.

3- Another user , friend or relative may make reference to someone being away.

4- Just in casual conversation if someone in a FB group mentions that they were in such and such a place, and casually, a kid, teen, adult, may respond with, OH I'm going next week, etc.
Not realizing they've just made themselves a potential target.

Again, no one deserves to be robbed.

[AndyWright68]

08:01 AM on 09/14/2010

Deserve might be the wrong word. They should not be surprised though. If people don't take measures to protect their property it is their fault. When we go on vacation we have a house sitter, we have an alarm system, are very tight with our neighbors and never make public announcements of our whereabouts. These are easy steps people should take. If people think they can be lazy and safe they are ignorant. They may not deserve to be robbed but it is to be expected.

BTW every web browser warns people that anything they search or post on the internet may be viewed be others.

[Douglas90723]

06:33 PM on 09/12/2010

Is it a good idea to tell your friends and family on FB where you hide the house key in the backyard?

Oh, I forgot at add....I'll be on vacation next week.....lol.

[Douglas90723]

06:26 PM on 09/12/2010

New cop TV show called: "" Bait House.""

Should be interesting.

[rf dude]

06:11 PM on 09/12/2010

It's OK - I list my address as the local police substation.

[ZiloRS]

05:24 PM on 09/12/2010

This is why I only update Facebook like once every two weeks..and usually with something generic that doesn't say much about my personal life...What is it with American narcissism and people thinking that everyone wants to know everything about them? The only people who are really that interested are advertisers and criminals.

[spinotter11]

07:02 PM on 09/12/2010

Then why do you update your Facebook web page at all? No one cares, whether the updates are made every microsecond or every two weeks.

[Lore Splitt]

09:14 PM on 09/12/2010

I don't know- I have friends and family on mine. I mean, anything very specific I'll just tell that person, but updates can be fun- I know I like reading friend updates here and there...

[LightShadow62]

05:19 PM on 09/12/2010

If you are stupid enough to post your entire life online then quite frankly you carry nearly as much blame as the criminals.