Social Media Scenario: Facebook for sale group

Garage sale groups within Facebook are very popular.  I've even used them myself, but one of the things I see in the groups worry me.  We must use caution when joining, using, and posting to Facebook groups.  

I saw something posted in a for sale group I'm a member of and I was like wait a second, this person looks familiar.  I thought they were someone I had seen at work, so I clicked on their picture to see.  The picture wasn't the best quality, so I swiped to see the next picture they had.  I discovered their Facebook profile was not locked down, meaning their permissions were not set correctly (such as friends only or friends of friends).  I, and everyone else in the world, was able to see their entire profile as if I was a close friend they had friended on Facebook.  You may think it isn't a big deal and I hear all the time, "No one wants to know about me or care what I talk about."  Sure that may be true, but think for a second if someone wanted to cause harm to you or one of your family members.  What if they were a pedophile or rapist?  They now have access to a lot of information from your Facebook page along with pictures of you and your family.  I'm sure some of those pictures include the names of your children, your mother, your father, etc.  I know you may saying to yourself, "Please, the odds of this happening are slim or it's a worst case scenario."  You are probably thinking it wouldn't happen to you, but I bet all of the people we hear stories about over the years selling things through various apps or online websites didn't think they would be robbed or murdered when they went to sell their cell phone or video game system.  Unfortunately, the world can be an ugly place and even though you aren't trying to bring attention to yourself, someone with bad intentions could stumble on to you by chance such as selling something on Facebook.

Let's run through a scenario.  Let's say a man was looking to buy a couch.  You or your spouse posts your couch for sale on the garage sale page on Facebook.  This "man" saw the couch and looked at the add.  This "man" happened to be a pedophile and the picture on the Facebook profile was you or your spouse and one of your children.  Since your profile is open to the world, he is able to see all of your pictures as if he was a close friend.  Since he is a pedophile, something about one of your children interests him.  He knows it is a couch and the odds are, he will need to come to your home to pick it up, so he agrees to buy the couch.  You agree to sell him the furniture and give him your address since it is a big, heavy piece.  He now knows where you live and of course he knows which car each of the family members drive, since you have posted pictures.  He can now wait for the time that only his intended target is home alone.  He would also be able to learn a lot about you and the rest of your family such as your child's age, grand parents' names, friends' names, etc.  He could use this information to lure the child away due to children being trusting by nature.  Again, I know you are thinking this is a "worst case scenario" and "would never happen to you", but there are tons of people that experience bad things in life when they weren't expecting to.

Please use this scenario as a reason to check the permissions on your social media sites such as Facebook.  It is important to remember you may have to check each one of your photo albums to ensure they aren't set to "Public".  In my opinion, it's always better to be safe than sorry.  So, I always restrict what people can see on my profile.  It's also important to remember that your "Profile Pictures" defaults to "Public", so be mindful of the pictures sitting in that folder.  I also am careful about who I "friend" and routinely audit my friends list to remove anyone I no longer associate with.

Also think about your other social media accounts that would be easily found by an internet search such as Instagram, Twitter, etc.  Those accounts are usually intended to be open to the public, but someone with malicious intentions could use your Facebook name, based on your for sale posting, to track down your other Social Media accounts.  They could then view your pictures or learn about you or your family through those accounts.  So even if you have your Facebook account locked down, they may be able to learn enough from your limited profile to find your other social media accounts.  A unique screen name may give them enough information or they could even use your profile picture to see where else it is posted on the internet (reverse image search within Google).

I'm not trying to scare anyone away from using social media sites or the internet, but we have to be careful as there are a lot of people with malicious intentions using the internet to target us.  My suggestion, have a second, Facebook account you can use for the for sale groups within Facebook if you frequently use them.  This second Facebook account would not have any revealing personal information and would have very limited pictures of anyone within your family.  Be prepared though, some people may not sell to or buy from you if there isn't a legitimate picture.  I would suggest using a safe, older picture that you haven't posted anywhere else on the internet.  Or, do like me and do not use the Facebook for sale groups.  I actually try to avoid all of the for sale apps, websites, etc.  Just been too many stories where people are robbed or killed trying to sell something trivial.  No one's life is worth a $40 cell phone.  I am now getting to the point where I either only sell to friends, take things to a pawn shop (even though I will make less), or I just donate them to friends, family, or charities.