Twitter posts leave us targets | Rockhampton Technology | Tech News for Rockhampton, Australia
Twitter posts leave us targets
SAVVY online predators are being given the equivalent of a master key to your home as more of us reveal our every move online.
Website and mobile phone application Foursquare announces a person’s whereabouts by publishing it on social networking site Twitter.
This information can then be searched anonymously by anyone who opens up the website.
The Daily put it to the test with remarkable ease.
Designed as a tool to allow users to know if they’re near friends, Foursquare may also tell thieves when your house is unoccupied.
In an experiment conducted by the Daily, a Coast suburb was searched through Twitter, with a Brisbane visitor announcing to the world that he was at a local bakery.
By navigating to his personal website, we discovered his age and the city he lived in and a hunt through the White Pages unearthed his address and phone number.
The process took about five minutes.
To highlight how easy it was to stalk somebody on the internet, an American website, Please Rob Me, was set up and described “every empty house out there”.
This week Australian police have launched National Consumer Crime Week which aims a spotlight on how vulnerable we are when we’re at the keyboard.
Queensland Police Fraud and Corporate Crime Group Detective Acting Superintendent David Scott said he wasn’t shocked by how easy it was to find a stranger’s personal details.
“I’m not surprised it was so easy. That’s the importance of Fraud Week,” he said.
“You’ve done it quickly, identifying his address in 10 minutes and you could have been breaking into the house half an hour later.
“I think it’s very risky behaviour to give up intimate and personal details because you put your safety at risk.
“If they’re open and honest, they might reveal their name, date-of-birth and address.
“That identity can be used to open a bank account and then you’re a victim of fraud.”
Acting Detective Senior Sergeant Kim Cavell of Sunshine Coast CIB said locals often were falling victim to online scams from overseas.
“There’re so many avenues and you have every opportunity to have your identity stolen or manipulated,” she said.
“It’s something we take as a real threat.”
University of Sunshine Coast communications lecturer Anna Potter said she knew about the Please Rob Me website and warned of new and convenient phone programs that could put people at risk.
“You can say where you are and it will tell you where the nearest restaurant or fuel is, but your location is constantly being revealed,” she said.
“You wouldn’t put a lot of personal details on a billboard in the middle of the street and this is on a global scale.”
The Brisbane man tracked down via his Foursquare and Twitter accounts said he was wary of putting information online but refused to be paranoid about it.
He said it might be easy to find out where he was, but Twitter hunters wouldn’t know if his wife or kids were at home.
After being contacted by the Daily, the man said he would now make his home number private.
For more, see www.scamwatch.gov.au
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Posted by shark13 from Maroochydore Bc, Queensland
05 March 2010 7:14 a.m. | Suggest removal » | Post reply »
When I went away to Airlie Beach last year, I didn't even post it on Facebook until I got back. You cant trust anyone.
Posted by mesenger from Maroochydore, Queensland
05 March 2010 7:14 a.m. | Suggest removal » | Post reply »
This is just another sign of how pathetic our civilisation is going, gossip, gossip, is the intelectual mode of the century, now wonder these idiots fall so many scams and cons going around, and these thicko's are in the sludge with them.
Posted by oreilly from Maroochydore, Queensland
05 March 2010 8:36 a.m. | Suggest removal » | Post reply »
This is an item designed to create fear. The fault is in the detail. Discern the location of John Smith. Discern the location of Audrey Faraway when she is using John Smith's mobile phone.
Posted by chokka from Parrearra, Queensland
05 March 2010 10:29 a.m. | Suggest removal » | Post reply »
Crooks have moved on from reading the address tags on luggage being shunted down an airline check-in queue to go and rob the house.
Facebook and Twitter are much faster and easier.
Posted by vanga from Caloundra, Queensland
05 March 2010 10:47 a.m. | Suggest removal » | Post reply »
you have to larf at the sad nobodies who put everything about themselves on twitter or facebook or blogs or wherever
they get what they deserve
Posted by marsape from Marian, Queensland
05 March 2010 11:31 a.m. | Suggest removal » | Post reply »
Mesenger hit the nail on the head, grow up people, most of you only know how to use a computer and not fix it, if you don't get a hold of our technology it will get ahead of you and you will find yourself being ripped off on every corner by someone like me with a trade in communications waiting to take your money to remove software which you could have removed by doing a simple restore, get with it australia, and you wonder why we need the foreigner's to run all our businesses, shame on you all, how stupid are you people to put your birthdate with your profile picture and name public, now that's a passport in the making right there, clean your house and put cloth nappies on your kids instead of sitting on you butt tellilng people how you have just done a hard mornings work.
Posted by Predictor from Moore Park, Queensland
05 March 2010 12:02 p.m. | Suggest removal » | Post reply »
Look at those fat blob's, cigarette in their moth's and typing away at Twitter and Facebook..!!
Too bored to do constructive work..!
Posted by chillibin from Little Mountain, Queensland
05 March 2010 12:58 p.m. | Suggest removal » | Post reply »
i personally dont know anyone who puts their address or personal details on facebook/twitter without making the profile private. I think those that do that would be in the minority - go and look at facebook and see how many accounts you can look at - very few.
Posted by chris69 from Mooloolaba, Queensland
05 March 2010 5:58 p.m. | Suggest removal » | Post reply »
Vanga,
Finally something you and I agree on mate!
To all you idiots that need to profile themselves and make "friends" on facebook, twitter, myspace, yourplace, myface, or whatever - log off, go for a walk down the street, smile and say hello to everyone that you pass.
You'll never look back.
Posted by Calman from Caloundra, Queensland
05 March 2010 7:29 p.m. | Suggest removal » | Post reply »
Anyone who uses Twitter has to be a twit.
Posted by ThePeanutGallery from Buderim, Queensland
05 March 2010 8:28 p.m. | Suggest removal » | Post reply »
Consider.
Most of your bank/finance records are probably stored and/or 'managed' by people offshore. Are we satisfied those records will never ever be leaked to 3rd parties or hacked into?
All the 'paperwork' you junk and throw into the bin without shredding. Is that good practice?
If we are daft enough to leave our electronic front door wide open and our electronic curtains wide open then of course we are asking for strife.
So, articles like this do help educate those who are new to technology..
I was looking at an MPs profile on Facebook the other day - I wont say which MP .. but they gave their full birthday details. Probably not the smartest thing to do...
Perils in the electronic world are pretty much the same as they have always been .. its just a different game with different rules. So, learn the rules and the tricks..