14 DAY TRIAL // Warnings about sharing too much personal information on social networks are a common thing, but an advertisement during the Sugar Bowl college football game may be what it takes to raise awareness about the details shared over the web.
The commercial for Allstate Insurance, features Mayhem (Dean Winters), a burglar who stalks his victims online to see when they leave their home. Then, he breaks in and puts their stuff for sale on a website at ridiculously low prices.
Selling items at a fraction of their value is what real crooks do in order to cash in fast on the stolen goods.
Crooks can check social networks for the location of their victims
The advertisement shows the nerd burglar in the house of his victims saying that he noticed the couple posting online from a different city (New Orleans) and that he decided to break into their house, steal their goods and sell them online. “Oversharing doesn’t pay, but does get you great deals on used stuff,” Mayhem says at the end of the 15-second commercial (available below).
It appears that the couple (25-year-old Matt and Shannon Moskal) used in the ad campaign is real and was picked through a market research study that showed they overshared personal details on social networks.
The two, who are both customers of Allstate Insurance, agreed to be part of the campaign and said that this experience has not changed the amount of info they disclose online, but did make them select the friends they share it with and adjust their privacy settings so that unknown individuals do not have access to the intel.
Security settings should not be ignored
Given the popularity of social networks, crooks have adapted to the new technology and often track their victims online.
Crooks can use the Internet just like any other person, only they do it with the purpose of checking the whereabouts of their victims. Facebook, Twitter, Foursquare are the main resources for learning where someone is located at a particular time.
In November 2014, a Russian website showed live streams from an enormous number of IP cameras that could be accessed with the default credentials. The owner relied on an automated mechanism to add new cameras by discovering them using Google and Shodan search.
The website has been shut down, as it attracted the attention of privacy watchdogs around the world, but anyone could easily discover new poorly protected video streaming devices and learn about the habits of a victim.
