Burglary Ring Used Facebook Places To Find Targets 152
Kilrah_il writes "A burglary ring was caught in Nashua, NH due to the vigilance of an off-duty police officer. The group is credited with 50 acts of burglary, the targets chosen because they posted their absence from home on the Internet. '"Be careful of what you post on these social networking sites," said Capt. Ron Dickerson. "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."' Well, I guess the prophecies came true."
Nothing new (Score:5, Informative)
Re:Nothing new (Score:5, Interesting)
And Google Street View's a gift for casing the joint - checking houses without burglar alarms, or with old/cheap ones, checking access and escape routes, etc - with no suspicion whatsoever, and no chance of a neighbour being able to remember someone acting a bit strangely a few days before a burglary took place.
Re:Nothing new (Score:5, Funny)
Re:Nothing new (Score:5, Insightful)
And Google Street View's a gift for casing the joint - checking houses without burglar alarms, or with old/cheap ones
Yeah because you can totally see a burglar alarm from the street -- with google's resolution you can't even see if they have a sticker in the window.
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Aren't burglar alarms housed in big red/blue boxes on the outside of houses? I'm sure you could spot one of those from the street ...
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Aren't burglar alarms housed in big red/blue boxes on the outside of houses?
Yeah, they even have labels on them that say "burglar alarm - do not tamper under penalty of law!"
Re:Nothing new (Score:5, Funny)
Please stop eating dog food. I think it's affecting your hormonal levels.
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Thats great... Until your facebooks says you are at the vet.
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Until your facebooks says you are at the vet.
With all his dogs? I'm sure when he takes his chihuahua to the vet, the pit bull and the rottweiler still stay home :-)
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yah, but they get into the liquor when left alone so they're no use.
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All the NRA sticker means is that you have easy to pawn manhood enhancement in the closet, and Viagra in the bathroom medicine cabinet.
That's not enough to discourage you from breaking and entering?!
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Most pawn shops, at least where I'm from have an FFL (Federal Firearms License, the stamp they need to sell guns as a business), but private sales are perfectly legal and don't require the seller to do a background check on the buyer. Plus, all sales records at the store and with the state police are destroyed after 30 days (or are supposed to be) in accordance with state law. But yeah, if you're in Massachusetts, probably not so easy.
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No, not displacement behavior.
Admittedly I was harsh, and overly so. I wouldn't normally say anything, but I guess not today.
The problem is, I don't see the inadequate dick thing as a joke anymore, because it's what a lot of people think, and they are serious about it. It happens on the web and in real life. I personally have been and seen other men accused of having a small pecker in casual conversation, mostly by women, when talking about traditionally masculine things like the aforementioned fast cars
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That's usually the case with any form of Darwinism. Hey stupid, don't post your whereabouts and habits on the public Internet unless you want *everybody* to know about them including some very unsavory people. How hard is this to understand? Anybody who doesn't comprehend that doesn't want to. A little cause and effect is just the cure.
Hey America I hate to break it to you, but being completely oblivious about the potential conseque
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I'd love them to break into my home. It's on Starbase 963, Deck 35, Corridor J in the Beta Quadrant because if anyone is able to successfully break in, then I want access to their ship so I can get home.
Re:Nothing new (Score:4, Funny)
Ah yes, the old "hang around in a bar until someone shouts out their address, and that they're going out of town for a while, then pull up outside their house in a car with cheap magnetic decals of a cable company" trick.
Funny how the cops never seem to think of going to the local magnetic-decals-of-cable-companies shop and asking questions, isn't it?
Re:Nothing new (Score:4, Funny)
"Funny how the cops never seem to think of going to the local magnetic-decals-of-cable-companies shop and asking questions, isn't it?"
It's a conspiracy.
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Hey, I suppose you're right...
Re:Nothing new (Score:5, Insightful)
Re:Nothing new (Score:4, Funny)
If you don't go to their funerals, then they will not come to yours.
Re:Nothing new (Score:5, Funny)
Funeral notices are the classic... what close family members don't go to the funeral?
Clearly you've never met my family.
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Funeral notices are the classic... what close family members don't go to the funeral?
That's why you have a family member,not immediate family of the deceased, or a trusted friend watching the house during a funeral.
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Yeah maybe that happened in the 80's but this is 2010. In my area (of s major Canadian city) theives don't ever bother with such elaborate plans involving magnetic decals or finding when people are out. It's pretty common for them just kick in the door. If anyone is home they hold them at gunpoint or lock them in a room. Then they just take what they want from the house and load it into a stolen truck. It seriously happens more than you'd believe.
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It hardly happens at all in the UK. It's one reason we like our anti-gun laws the way they are :-)
(Burglars here presumably make some effort to see that the house is empty, then kick a door in. If there's someone in the house they'll probably -- though not always -- flee. "Aggrevated burglary" has a much harsher sentence, and there are lots more houses.)
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I'm generally suspicious of comparing countries in this way. In the UK "assault" includes intentionally touching someone against their wishes. In many other countries, injury (or intent to injure) is required.
However, I don't want to defend the UK either, since there are clearly social problems, like terrible class divisions and a general antipathy towards children and teenagers.
If you haven't seen it, watch Kidulthood. Apart from being in a single day, I don't think it's an unreasonable sequence of events.
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Want to discourage 95% of all idiots that rob homes? go on Ebay and buy ADT stickers and Signs. install them.
TADA! They will move on to a easier target just by driving by and looking at the house.
Also what kind of idiots are posting their location PUBLICALLY? What nimrod has his profile visible to anyone but friends?
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Headline might as well be 'Bad Things Happen To Those Who Make Dumb Choices'
Re:Nothing new (Score:4, Insightful)
I think this is another "but somehow it's different because a computer was involved!" type of issue.
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It is different. A postal mailbox doesn't have a button hidden behind the hinge of the front door which, unless you press it, will publish the fronts of your envelopes (but only the fronts, anything more would be invasive y'see) and summary statistics on mail received, in the Orangeville Residents' Bulletin and Book of Faces.
OK it's not a perfect analogy, and maybe it's not fundamentally different, but online life has more gotchas than what meets the eye. Privacy and forgetting have to be engineered in; the
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It is different. A postal mailbox doesn't have a button hidden behind the hinge of the front door which, unless you press it, will publish the fronts of your envelopes (but only the fronts, anything more would be invasive y'see) and summary statistics on mail received, in the Orangeville Residents' Bulletin and Book of Faces.
OK it's not a perfect analogy, and maybe it's not fundamentally different, but online life has more gotchas than what meets the eye. Privacy and forgetting have to be engineered in; there aren't physical limitations.
The only thing there is to assume is that the Internet is a public resource and anything you publish there is fully public unless you have a very good, verifiable, evidence-based reason to believe otherwise. It's that simple.
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I think this is another "but somehow it's different because a computer was involved!" type of issue.
I'll take it. Anything that gets people to raise the awareness of what they post on sites like Facebook. I'm just waiting for the day one of my family members publicly posts their address or phone number without thinking.
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"Anything that gets people to raise the awareness of what they post on sites like Facebook. I'm just waiting for the day one of my family members publicly posts their address or phone number without thinking."
And that's different to your address and phone number (including mobiles if you choose) appearing in the phone book that everyone has a copy of IN THEIR HOUSE (or available on the internet)?
I don't disagree with keeping all such info separate, but it's not really difficult for someone who wants to find
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And that's different to your address and phone number (including mobiles if you choose) appearing in the phone book that everyone has a copy of IN THEIR HOUSE (or available on the internet)?
Yes. The names in that phone book are not as easy to link to me. (Never mind that I do not have my name in any phone books.)
I don't disagree with keeping all such info separate, but it's not really difficult for someone who wants to find out about you doing so.
The amount of energy spent finding that information is a factor. Attracting people towards that information is a factor. Actually.. being a 'grrl' you should already understand that.
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A computer was involved? Quick - patent the method!
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Wrong analogy.
It is no different from your kid saying that he is going somewhere in the schoolyard. My neighbour two houses down the street from me had that one happen to him a couple of months back. His kid was overly talkative about their vacation plans.
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Rob me now [robmenow.com]
Hang on.. (Score:1)
Didn't someone already create a webpage called PleaseRobMe or something like that
using people's social networking locations?
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http://youropenbook.org/ [youropenbook.org] is still very much up. Look up "vacation" and be amazed. Found a guy on there the other day letting everyone know he was going to Disney World for the next 11 days. He lived in NH and had a listed phone number...
Re:Hang on.. (Score:5, Funny)
Re:Hang on.. (Score:4, Funny)
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Good job he wasn't carrying a salt shaker, then it would have been "a salt and battery".
Not Places (Score:5, Informative)
They looked for status messages saying people were on vacation. A bit different from using Places.
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Silver Lining (Score:5, Interesting)
But now, thanks to Places and the idiots that use it, burgling is easier than ever!
There is a silver lining to that cloud. The more criminals are tempted to go after those who actively make themselves an easy target, the more likely it is that those with a bit of sense will be left alone. This means you now have more control than ever over whether this will happen to you. Choice is good.
Re:Silver Lining (Score:4, Interesting)
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I wonder when Chris Hansen will get in on the action?
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There is a silver lining to that cloud. The more criminals are tempted to go after those who actively make themselves an easy target, the more likely it is that those with a bit of sense will be left alone. This means you now have more control than ever over whether this will happen to you. Choice is good.
Just as long as that easy target isn't your teenager telling all of his/her friends that you're out of town on facebook! You can't keep track of every stupid thing your child does.
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There is a silver lining to that cloud. The more criminals are tempted to go after those who actively make themselves an easy target, the more likely it is that those with a bit of sense will be left alone. This means you now have more control than ever over whether this will happen to you. Choice is good.
Just as long as that easy target isn't your teenager telling all of his/her friends that you're out of town on facebook! You can't keep track of every stupid thing your child does.
Instead you can teach them better than that. Of course, that isn't compatible with the assumption that they're going to do stupid things no matter what and there's nothing you can do about it.
The schools understand something quite well. The best way to make an impressionable young person into an idiot is to treat them like one.
Always change your privacy settings (Score:1)
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How much do you want to bet that the victims were using Facebook's default privacy settings...
My default privacy settings are the best available because I don't use Facebook.
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Re:Always change your privacy settings (Score:4, Insightful)
Actually I don't use it because I understand it. Maybe you don't know this, but you can look before you leap, you can read up on something and learn something about it before deciding whether you will engage in it.
By your false logic, every non-smoker on the planet was once a smoker since they would never know why tobacco use is detrimental to health until after trying it and experiencing worse health. There's this thing called foresight that makes that unnecessary.
Incidentally "trashing" is a very strange term to describe calmly and honestly discussing its disadvantages. I think you have a sore point. Apparently the idea that others might have good reasons for not doing something that you have your reasons for doing is inflammatory and offensive to you. Most of the problems in the world are caused by an inability to live and let live, which in turn is rooted in mentalities like yours. You deserve every last bit of misery it causes you.
Dispute me on that if you think you can, though at this point the prudent thing for you would be to silently disappear and pretend you didn't notice my reply.
Re: (Score:2)
Well, I do think that this was at least flippant, if not smug:
My default privacy settings are the best available because I don't use Facebook.
While it is indisputable that this is the best privacy scenario for *you*, you can't reasonably say that has any applicability to somebody who wants to use Facebook. It's certainly reasonable to discuss whether Facebook provides services that people really need, or question the value of the services, but still many people will come to a different conclusion than you.
My advice on Facebook privacy controls is not to rely on them *at all*. Rather,
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I really liked your post, it was cool and logical. Then, I assume so you could fit in here (the Internet), you go and post the douchey paragraph at the end.
So you won't be disputing my points then?
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I have very open privacy settings. I don't trust Facebook with any degree of privacy, and with my privacy settings set to, essentially, everybody, I don't have any false sense of security. I never put anything on Facebook I don't want the whole world to see (except Mom, who isn't on line), so why restrict it anyway?
hmm (Score:5, Funny)
Re:hmm (Score:4, Interesting)
and mind your privacy settings regarding "Everyone."
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Yeah, because that is so easy to predict.
Here's the thing, when you have kids, you end up friending a ton of people you know marginally. You also find out a lot of things that you can have talks with your kids about (not mentioning any names in those talks, just bring up the topic in general... "hey, what would you do if you found out some of your friends did such and such?").
My kids don't have Facebook accounts, but most of their IRL friends at school and church do.
But I think this shows that you shouldn'
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Yeah, because that is so easy to predict.
Here's the thing, when you have kids, you end up friending a ton of people you know marginally. You also find out a lot of things that you can have talks with your kids about (not mentioning any names in those talks, just bring up the topic in general... "hey, what would you do if you found out some of your friends did such and such?").
My kids don't have Facebook accounts, but most of their IRL friends at school and church do.
But I think this shows that you shouldn't put anything online that you don't want to put right in front of your house. Don't put up a flier "gone out of town 3 weeks" on your front door and don't put it on Facebook either. Share the photos when you get back.
Sounds like a good topic for me and my family to talk about at dinner tonight.
If you have been a good model and example to your family of common sense and instilled the same virtue in them, gently and patiently but unambiguously correcting any failures to apply it, then any specific talk about this particular subject would be redundant.
If you've failed to uphold that standard then the very best you could do is a list of "dos and dont's". That list might or might not include potential perils of using Facebook but anything you leave out of that list would remain a vulnerability fro
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It's not anywhere near as straight-forward as that. Furthermore, peer pressure is difficult even with the best parenting.
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It's not anywhere near as straight-forward as that. Furthermore, peer pressure is difficult even with the best parenting.
That's only true when you pressure your children to behave (for example, getting upset and intimidating them into "being good" instead of correcting and instructing them with calm but unyielding authority). That teaches them to respond to pressure and that this is normal. Then when someone else comes along who also knows how to pressure them, you have this tug-of-war that you very well may end up losing since you can't be there all the time to counter every bad influence.
It is as straightforward as tha
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If you think anything in child rearing is "as straightforward as that", you have no real knowledge of children or raising them, and I can't take anything you say seriously. The best you can possibly say is that whatever you did worked for your kid(s).
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Here's the thing, when you have kids, you end up friending a ton of people you know marginally.
I have a six year old son myself and my friends on facebook are still, well, my friends. I believe that's why they call it "friends", not "people you kinda met once, but don't really know". I can honestly say that I don't have a single friend on facebook that I wouldn't trust with a key to my apartment, so I certainly don't mind any of them knowing if I'm going on vacation. Then again, I only have like 10 friends on facebook, including my closest family (mother, father and sister).
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How about this, don't friend people you don't really know then. QED.
Alternatively, use Facebook's filtering, and stop being a pithy twit giving up info about yourself; whatever happens, it's self-inflicted. Most robberies are by people you know.
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> Most robberies are by people you know.
[[citation needed]]
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Personally, I make extensive use of Friend Lists. I have a list for friends from High School (10+ yrs ago), a list for people from my church... one for my family (aunts, uncles, cousins, etc)... on for my wife's family... one for immediate family.... one for close friends and people I have some basic trust in... and one for people I don't know at all but added to gain some advantage in a FB game. My default postings are only visible to immediate family and close friends only. This includes anything from Gow
story summary is horseshit... (Score:5, Informative)
...No where in TFA was Facebook Places mentioned, just idiots who announced that they would not be at home. Looks like the submitter has an axe to grind with Places.
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It's not entirely horseshit: Burglars didn't use the places okay. Though there is no denying that it could be used for this means. It may even be more effective of a tool than simple status searches. The original submitter has good intentions. Your's are blinded by the hype job that is location based services right now. They are in no way a benefit to consumers, only marketers.
This specific situation may not be tied to FB:Places; However, the story is a great example of how burglars today are collud
Reminds me... (Score:5, Informative)
Did anyone else see this? (Score:1, Funny)
Burger King used facebook places to find targets
Terrifying stuff.
Comment removed (Score:3, Insightful)
Re:Security through obscurity (Score:4, Insightful)
As I've been saying here on Slashdot for years; the mantra so often chanted here ("security through obscurity is no security at all"), is dead wrong. Security professionals well know that obscurity is a valuable part of their arsenal - because an intruder or attacker cannot prepare in advance for a defensive or security measure he does not know is there.
Re:Security through obscurity (Score:5, Insightful)
Security through obscurity is worthless. I think what you mean is "security WITH obscurity," which is one of the levels of layered security everyone should use.
Re: (Score:2, Insightful)
"security through obscurity" is NOT "I have a hidden silent alarm and once they get inside there is a guard dog even though there are no signs"
"security through obscurity" is "I can leave my doors unlocked because I live in the middle of nowhere" or "My house is unremarkable and small, nobody will think to rob me. I'll leave my doors unlocked." It's relying on the fact that your operating system or application software is nonstandard, so there are no pre-made rootkits for it. And relying on ONLY that for
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Yep. When you can't plan for it, risk goes through the roof. That's why, say, the Secret Service keeps presidential protection details a secret. It isn't because the protection is extremely weak, far from it, it is some of if not the best in the world. However it is just that much harder to get through if you don't know what all is there. Where are all the agents station? How are the armed? Who is under cover? What kind of backup do they have? What are the escape routes? If all this is known, it is easier t
Privacy vs. Anonymity vs. Stupidity (Score:1)
We HAVE a right to privacy - things done in private should stay there.
We THINK we have a right to anonymity - that somehow, things done in a public place or forum will not be connected with our identity.
People ACT with stupidity, when they post private information on a public forum with their identity specifically attached.
Society needs to read some Niven and Pournelle and learn what "Evolution in action means."
Facebook / Twitter location services (Score:4, Interesting)
This isn't surprising to me because Facebook and Twitter apps on mobile (iPhone and android) have a "location" feature in them that always really scared me. Basically it posts your position along with your post, and people can track you..
I guess that's not directly related to this particular burglary ring, but it could be used in the same way.. or just to rob people of their phone. "Person A is at the starbucks and they clearly have an iPhone since Facebook says 'posted from my iPhone'.."
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because now people that don't know you don't even have to waste their time following you around to know your routine.
practicalities (Score:4, Insightful)
i don't understand how the burglars were able to quickly trawl facebook to find :
a) the street addresses of the people who were on holiday, not normally stored in facebook?
b) who did not co-habit with people who were not on holiday
c) who had stuff worth stealing
d) living within easy driving distance of the burglar
e) no alarm, neighborhood watch, alert neighbours etc
f) the exact days of leaving and arriving back
burglars already have lots of ways to find a target house without data mining social networking sites, e.g. pushing flyers half-way into letter boxes then coming back in two days to see if any are still untouched, driving buy in the evening to see if lights are off etc etc.
is it possible that some of those got burgled who had posted about their holiday, and told the police "that must be the reason" ? I know TFA asserts that the police know the gang used facebook, but something does not add up here. seems like BS to me.
Re:practicalities (Score:5, Insightful)
For the street address, if people use their full name in facebook and list their town, there's a good chance that you can get a correct address from the white pages. As for whether other people will be home, if they say "family vacation", that gives a good probability that every one in the house will be gone. As to the other things you pointed out (alarm, neighborhood watch, whether they have stuff worth stealing), you're correct. They probably have to case the joint in person to get that info. But at least they know they're casing a place that will be vacant on a particular day. Someone might case my house and determine I'm an excellent prospect, but if I don't go on vacation for a year then they haven't got anything.
People just don't think it through (Score:5, Insightful)
I wish I had mod points to mod you up.
What many people seem to fail to see is that every single datapoint one gives out can be combined with others to often paint a far clearer picture of your life and it's details than one might think. It would actually be fairly trivial to put in a few weeks of work in order to build a list of targets ripe for the picking, if that.
Paranoid much? (Score:5, Informative)
It amazes the ammount of paranoid people turning it off believing it tracks their location whereever they log into face book. It's not even available worldwide completely.
From TFFBFAQ: "At this time, the Places application is available to users in the United States with mobile access to the Facebook application for iPhone or touch.facebook.com"
Even with places turned off, you only need to post "going to fiji for 6 weeks w00t" and everybody knows you're not home. It amazes me the number of people, especially young females who post "I'm home alone tonight and bored" - you can be sure I'm in contact with the really quickly to tell them how dangerous that is and if I they feel unsafe I could
Re: (Score:2, Funny)
...especially young females who post "I'm home alone tonight and bored"
Go on...
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Facebook places is only for iPhone and phones that support W3 geolocation, and only available via native application or touch.facebook.com. You also actually have to explicitly 'check in' / 'check out' of places.
Only half correct. You state that the metaphorical 'you' has to explicitly have to 'check in' to places, but you're friends have the ability to check you into places by default. "Out having coffee with @w0mprat, having a great convo about privacy, could last hours"
from blog.facebook.com....
"When your friends check you in, it is as if you have checked in at that place yourself. You also will appear checked-in to your friends."
friend fraud (Score:2)
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I got a friend request once from some generic profile, supposedly for an organization related to where I'm located. Looked at it, and I couldn't tell who they were or how they might have been related to me in any way. Did these clowns think I was going to friend them? Hell, I don't want some of the friends I already have, so I'm certainly not going to add more that I can't even identify.
Handing information to criminals (Score:2)
I know of an HOA that installed security cameras- apparently the objective was not to have them monitored by a security company, but to hand out the cameras' IP so that homeowner who knew about it could do their own security. I guess it never dawned on anyone that the cameras could be used just as easily to *commit* a crime, rather than prevent it.
A pretty comprehensive writeup... (Score:5, Informative)
I think this case could be a very good lever for getting Facebook to change default permissions to "friends only" for everything, as most of the stories are suggesting that, where there's a facebook connection, the profiles were set to the default "everybody can ready my stuff" setting.
Deleted Facebook account (Score:2, Interesting)
I recently bit the bullet and deleted my FB account - I've had concerns about privacy on there from the get go. I did however start a new account using a name that is similar but not quite the same as my real name. I figure it will be hard for most people to find me that aren't in my immediate circle of trusted friends.
So, now I am starting to re-friend everyone which also has a couple of advantages. I get to say hi to a few people I haven't been in direct contact with when I drop them a new friend request
Typical media hype (Score:4, Informative)
From another source [pcmag.com], they didn't use Places at all.
Misinformation might do the trick... (Score:2)
JohnQP has checked in at Mo's Gun Emporium. - "Stocking up on some shotgun shells, then off to Jay's Alarms for even MORE motion sensors."