In last night’s broadcast of the Sugar Bowl, a showdown of two power-house college football teams in the USA, Allstate Insurance, aired a series of brilliant commercials about the risk of over-sharing on social networks. The social media team at Avast has been preaching this message for a while now, so we were happy to see this clever series of advertisements.
The ads are about a couple who shared on social networks that they were away from their house, actually attending the game. Allstate’s “Mayhem” character took advantage of this knowledge and broke into their unoccupied house, and proceeded to have a “MayhemSale” of all their possessions. “Buy Matt & Shannon’s stuff now at MayhemSale.com,” he announced, then soon after took to Twitter to sell off items one-by-one. I immediately visited the website, but apparently there were so many other interested people, that it kept crashing.
Saw couple posting from tonight’s game. Figured I’d break into their house / sell all their stuff. #MayhemSale http://t.co/FKHiRjz68S
— Mayhem (@Mayhem) January 2, 2015
Burglars can easily search Facebook or Twitter for targeted keywords or see who has checked into airport lounges on Foursquare. According to FBI statistics, summertime is the most active for burglaries and oversharing can tip off thieves to your absence. Homeowners should be extra vigilant about protecting their goods.
Our advice – be extremely cautious what you share on social media, and wait until after you are back to share your vacation pictures.