Please Rob Me - A Twit and their Money are Soon Mugged!

By John McCormick  

If you think social media sites are just the most wonderful technology since Windows, check out PleaseRobMe.com for a look at the potential very dark side.

Essentially the site creators saw people twittering such personal information so often that they were providing potential thieves (or worse) with a timeline of their lives showing just when their homes would be empty and therefore a perfect target.

Visit pleaserobme.com and you will see a compilation of homes which are empty at this very moment.

While Twitter and other social media sites provide a great way to communicate useful information, far too many people take things much too far.

By sharing every move they make this only places a very, VERY large target on the person who feels they must tell the world where they are every minute of the day and perhaps if they will be too drunk to resist any threat.

With very little cross checking even an idiot can identify many individuals on Twitter and determine where they live. In many cases you can even learn what they look like from Facebook or other sites which they often post links for other twits.

All the potential criminal needs to do then is follow them on twitter.

Once that person announces to the world that they have just gone to the mall or taken the family to a movie, they are also telling every thief in the town that their house is empty and ripe for the picking.

Many also provide such helpful information as when they make a trip to the bank to cash a check, or which bar they are getting wasted at.

This is also a boon to stalkers; the dreaded EX you have a restraining order against, pedophiles, and just local gossips.

I've always said that you can't spell twitter without "twit" and this new site proves it in spades.

John McCormick is a reporter, /science/medical columnist and finance and social commentator, with 17,000+ bylined stories. Contact John through NewsBlaze.