Insurers are considering raising premiums for social media users after a number of internet users posted holiday details online to warn potential thieves that they were missing, The Daily Mail reported .
"It's a challenge for the industry. Just because amazon data someone is robbed, you can't prove it was because of details posted on Facebook," Malcolm Cooper, pricing director at Legal&General , told the paper .
This trend comes after a study carried out by the insurance company which revealed that of the 2,000 respondents, 40% revealed their holiday plans online and that among the 16 to 24 age group this habit affected 60% of participants.
Fraser, a reformed burglar, says he has no doubt that thieves use this system to track down potential victims and calls the practice "online shopping for criminals."
"It's incredibly easy to use the internet to target people and then learn more about their home using other tools like Google Street View , all from the comfort of your couch," he explained.
In addition, this experiment measured the ease with which people accept strangers as friends on social networks, something that 90% of Twitter users do and 10% of those who use Facebook.