Social Networks Used as Criminal and Investigation Tools in Venezuela

Reported by Softpedia on Thursday, 19 November 2009 (on November 19, 2009)

A group of Venezuelan students were recently arrested by local police for various theft charges. After further investigation, authorities proved that they were using many social networking sites, especially Facebook, to monitor their victims' activity and rob their houses while out of town.Global Post reports that the group was formed by three persons, a couple and a third man, a local student and close friend to many of his victims. The group used his Facebook friends list to acquire information about the man's college friends. They followed updates, inspected the financial status and analyzed pictures from the victim's profile to gain precious information about their location, house arrangement and time table. After gaining all the necessary data, the man, assisted by the couple, robbed his friend's house when the victim was away (information also acquired through various social network updates)."They observe the families’ movements, they study the residencies — the comings and goings, the security measures," said Wilmer Flores Trosel, director of the CICPC, a national investigation agency in Venezuela.Authorities are also warning that sites like Hi5, Facebook, Sonico or Twitter can and have been used by South American kidnappers in the past. It...

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Social Networks Used as Criminal and Investigation Tools in Venezuela
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