I have seen warnings before like that. Especially when a person goes on vacation. Sad to say, people seem to find addresses even on chat forums even when they don't even post the city they live in.
Thanks for reminding us to be careful what we say, when we say it and how we say it.
Marie

What a terrible thing to happen, an ailing mother AND a burglary.
I agree we should be careful.
I think there are vast opportunities for those who are bent on mayhem: chat boards, court and jury duty lists (I'm sure information is obtained or sold even when it is supposed to be private) work schedules, etc.
Even if one is careful, it is always good to make it difficult for the burglar whether that be locks, an alarm service, dogs, etc.

I never post something like that. But wouldn't it mean someone would have to you know you? I mean, there's no place for an address, so wouldn't it have to be someone who knows where you live? How does that happen?

Good question. I know that I worry about exposing our info when in our RV. We have signs that have our first and last names, plus our city. I do believe anyone could look us up. We do use a 'mailing service' rather than our home address, but stuil...... (DH not convinced)

A lot of people on FB don't have privacy settings established to prevent anyone from viewing their posts. Unfortunately, this results in incidents like this. The perps would have to know the neighborhood, figure out which people are on FB and then watch their posts. It could simply be a coincidence but it's sad news regardless.

Having said that, one of my FB pet peeves are those people who post their every waking moment. Really don't need to know that much about you.

Many people in sales etc 'friend' *everyone* & use 'public' as their default choice for sharing.

& you can find addresses via tax records.

but thieves get information from other sources, too.

All the neighbors usually know who you are & what's going on in your life, they know your car, they know when you have something going on, & they may not be what you think they are.
or they may have a bad old cousin visiting them, or their daughter's boyfriend's stepfather's delinquent kid may overhear something.

Obituaries typically have the date, time, & place of funerals, & there are usually a lot of unfamiliar vehicles at the house{{gwi:807}}, so...
thieves stop by while everyone's at the church or funeral home, & if a neighbor challenges them, they say, "Oh, is that *today*? I'd better hurry!"

When another friend was asked to keep an eye on a neighbor's house, she decided that she needed to be there onsite "just to be sure".

so (she's quite a gal) she got her riding lawn mower & rode down the street & mowed the lawn.

She said it was a 'twofer'.
She watched the house as they had asked her, & they had a nice freshly-mown lawn to come home to.

Sure enough, she said, a big SUV turned onto the street, hesitated, & turned around & left.

could have been a confused person who just took the wrong turn, but could have been something else.

**********
I just volunteered at the hospital, & one of the things we were encouraged to do (which I won't do;I just can't bring myself to challenge someone who might knock the daylights out of me, so I'll call security instead) is to stop people who are going out the door{{gwi:807}} with expensive equipment.

Explanation:
professional thieves will send someone to the hospital to find out what color lab coats are worn by, say, building services people.

They'll get some lab coats in that color, make fake IDs, go into a lab, & if there's no one there, they'll wheel out a big piece of expensive equipment.

edited to add:

yep, dees, there's a very pretty young mother on facebook who routinely posts things like when she's going to the dentist, when she's on the way to pick up her beautiful daughter (pictures are posted) at school, when that daughter will be spending the night camping with her Girl Scout group at the XYZ campground, when the mom is staying home while everyone else is at work (in case you want the mother instead of the daughter).

This post was edited by sylviatexas on Mon, Jun 2, 14 at 13:37

find them via "tax records"? What tax records?

It true, many people are confused about all the FB settings. Often times you get to see a post from one of your contacts friends.

Many people post pictures to some sites with out making sure to strip all gps locations from the pictures. If you do not have your cell phone set to not put the geolocation(geotagging) on the pictures in the meta data then each picture you take will have the exact location of where the picture was taken in that info. Some include the actual longitude and latitude. Some of the sites have started supposedly stripping that info from the pictures before they are posted. I don't like to trust that they always do that. There are apps you can use on your phone that will strip the all the data info from your pictures so they are safe to post. There is an opt in feature in most of the new smartphones so check your phones camera settings and see if it is set to never add that info.
Unfortunately many that use facebook don't fully understand the importance of learning about all of the often changing security and personal settings. As often as they change things you need an instruction manual.

http://pixelgarde.com/ an app for android and ios

Here is a link that might be useful: pixelgarde

You can look at your county's tax office records to see who owns a particular piece of property, & you can also look to see all the property owned by a particular person.

Just google (name of your county) tax.

Then I was right. That only works if the person posting is the one who owns the home. Wouldn't work for me. Doesn't work for my ex. "O'Sneed" owns his property and isn't even close to his name. Could work, but no guarantee. I appreciate the answer.

There are notices in our paper to caution putting out information with obituaries. Sometimes people attending funerals get their house ransacked. It's suggested to have a friend stay at your home while you're at the funeral.

whitepages.com aggregates a fair amount of public information and can often (though not always) locate renters in addition to homeowners.

Give it a try, see whose addresses and phone numbers you might find.

It's really not that hard. Not to sound creepy, but I could find the addresses of several people on the KT if I were so inclined, just based on innocent information given. First names are often used. Most people don't put last names, but it happens occasionally. You can also see full names sometimes through what people share, like Photobucket accounts.

Just by paying attention to posts, or searching, you can find out if people have family living with them or if they live alone. Travel plans are often loudly broadcast as well, with dates leaving and coming back.

There is so much information out there just by simple Googling, and if anyone is paying attention and has the inclination to do so, it's easy to figure these things out. And this is just a forum, much less Facebook with far more private information usually.

I can see ways *I* might be found from what I have posted over the years. Can you?

I often see posters on here sharing about an upcoming trip and even give the time of their departure. Not a good thing!

I tried FB for a very, very brief time.
I "talked" with someone from this forum.
She has a lot of you for "friends".
I saw the list of first and last names and
where you lived....and many personal messages.
FB is beyond intrusive.

Not to get too far off track from the issue of too many posting where they physically are (like out of town, on a glorious vacation, or in the hospital etc), I see way too many statements regarding relationship status.

Unlimited strangers do not need to know someone is in their house alone.

Google your phone number and get a picture of your house. Property tax shows the parcel, location, size, owner, and taxes paid.

The same thing happens in my area during funerals. A low-life scans the obiturary page in the newspaper and maps his targets. At the time of the wake, he figures its the most probable time that the house will be empty and plans to enter it. If he senses it is occupied, he merely moves on the the next house on his list.

Its a good practice to have a trusted person stand watch in your home while you attend various funeral ceremonies.

This is why we hire a "house sitter" when we go on trips... there are 3 that we use.... and they all are wonderful... and so far, everything has worked out for us.... The sitter cares for our pets that are unable to travel with us and so it is great for our furkids too..
Plus after our neighbor killed our American Black & Tan Coonhound, we have started to place motion scensor cameras here and there...

But if someone wants to break in and do damage or steal.. they will do it even if you are at home...bad people do bad things and have no conscience at all...

When my father passed away years ago, our neighbor, a police officer, came over and expressed his sympathies.

In lieu of going to the funeral, he then told us he would be staying home and watching our home during the funeral. He made his presence very clear. He parked his cruiser in our driveway, and mowed his yard & ours.

Dad was laid to rest in a different state, and our neighbor made sure our house was taken care of the whole time.
Thank God for good neighbors!

We do the same Country Sunshine. At times it has worked out that friends were happy to stay, but we always have it covered. Plus we have awesome neighbors, two of them right near me are police officers. We also pay for regular constables patrol for the subdivision.

I have no want or need to be involved in any social media sites. Not for me.

I agree about people posting WAY too much private info about being away from their home on Facebook and other websites (including KT). My sisters, nieces, and other relatives do it all the time. I'm not surprised that my one niece has had her house robbed once and her car totally stripped another time....

Just wanted to say that there are also creeps who will steal everything from unlocked cars at a funeral parlor!

I have made really sure it's very difficult to find me through online sources, but some still do. I don't think a stranger could find my home? I never post from there and I don't publish the information. Along with, I rent, so you'd have to know my landlord's name and know that I live with them? Can't google my name or my phone number and find me. I've still been found. The only way I know you can find me is through NIH stuff. Even then, it's not my maiden name. You'd have to know my current name.

A friend of mine just had this happen. Her father passed away, and his house was robbed while they were all at the funeral. They stole a dog that was at the house, even! Luckily the people were spotted and caught (and the dog was found abandoned in the getaway car).

It is just so sad that somebody would see fit to target people at their saddest time.

She has been at the sentencing of both the girls that were involved, and neither one seems to think they did anything wrong. Sick sick sick.

Dances.

Police have been warning about posting abscences, vacation plans, concerts etc for several years now.

So sorry this happened at such a sad time.

In our neighborhood it would be hard for a stranger to come in and rob but you never know...I don't worry about posting to Facebook either because we always make sure the house is being taken care of and looked after. I posted our whereabouts while we were on our trip on a daily basis..

Please tell me how you would find me from information I have posted on GardenWeb?

You don't have my full name, my DH's or DS's names, telephone numbers or the town in which I live, do you? Without that...how would you locate "Sue"?

Our hospital has stopped publishing who went into the hospital and when they got out. Now they just publish that a baby girl/boy has been born toXXX with no additional information. But some obits are very detailed as to where the relatives live, when they are coming, leaving, etc.

Chisue, are you referring to me? If so, I can tell you how I could locate you based on Gardenweb.

However, I respect people's privacy so only if you want me to.

chi83 -- I wasn't addressing only you, but I would like to see how you find 'a person' based solely on their postings on GW when they haven't provided a surname or town -- without access to government records.

Please don't "blow my cover", but...

Can you create a "generic' poster here and show your clues to identifying the individual? I'm interested to see what I -- and others -- shouldn't be revealing.

I too would like to know what shouldn't be revealed. If it's ok to do?

The problem is that there is so much information out there that it can be incredibly easy to find someone based on very innocent things.

Here's a completely fictional example: Carol posts on the KT. She says she lives near San Jose, CA and shared wedding pictures of her son Ellis. All very innocent things.

I Google "Carol San Jose White Pages" and come up with a long list of Carol's in San Jose. However, this webpage also gives a list of people each Carol "knows" and a quick ctrl+f and I search for Ellis and find a match. I then click "Address" and have Carol's address.

Sue, I think I was able to find you based on very little information (I emailed the specifics to you in case you're curious).

So my tips would be:

1. Don't give out names, especially if they are unique. A first name can be ok if it's generic enough, but once you add in spouses and kids, it becomes significantly easier to locate someone. ESPECIALLY unique names. Google is far more effective at identifying someone with unique names, and results can be filtered down far more efficiently with each additional detail (each name) that you have.

2. If you use other forums, don't use the same user name. You may keep things "contained" in different environments, but cross referencing different forums can give far more info than a single forum, and people are often more revealing to different audiences they assume don't have cross traffic.

3. For sharing photos, create an anonymous album. I have seen multiple people on the KT who post a picture, and you just have to click on it to go to their main photobucket account, where you can often see their full name, plus all sorts of private photos. I believe this is due to people not fully understanding privacy settings, so if that's the case it's best to just create an anonymous one with no identifying information for public use.

The chances of something negative happening are extremely low but it's good to be aware of what you put out there. Even innocent details can now be Googled to create a portrait of someone.

Thanks, chi83. I suspected the condo rental connection would be my 'clue' for you. I forgot that using "find" makes any PC powerful enough to narrow the field so much!

I wish finding individuals had been this easy when I was aiding adoptees in search of birth family years ago.

Now I think I must change my user names! Will y'all still love me when I'm sitxy-four...er, somebody else?

It's unnerving how easy it is, to be honest. Just basic details that most people don't think twice about sharing can really come together with how open the internet is and how effective search engines can be with just simple queries.

Listen, this has been going on long before FB and other social media... Back in the 1960's, my dad and a bunch of his friends were going fishing for 2 weeks a couple of states away... Boy, was my mom po'd that the information was in the 'social' section of the local paper...

which is also why if you're having some sort of event, wedding, funeral, etc. Have someone stay at your family's home[s] so that they aren't a target for robbery..

When I was Society Editor for my hometown paper (actually Girl of All Work), we received 'news' from townspeople saying when they were going to visit family -- or when family was coming to visit them!

What's possible with a search engine and a few facts goes far beyond that! I never joined Facebook or other similar sites, but I could be 'found' quite easily by chi83.

We always use a house sitter when we are on vacation, but the evening we were burgled *I was at home, in the jet tub*! (DH had left the garage door open when he walked the dog.)

That person only needed access and three minutes. Our next door neighbor had a break-in last month, thwarted when she came home; burglar probably heard the garage door go up.

No point *burglarizing* us again. I never replaced the jewelry. But what CAN someone else do with the identifying information chi83 was able to access in minutes?

Honestly I think the only real threat (and still a small threat) is when that sort of information is combined with broadcasting things like vacation dates, or major events when the home is known to be empty. That or new major (valuable) purchases, etc. or if someone is known to have money.

I don't see too many of those details (other than vacation or meetup type things) on the KT.