A 17-year-old Australian girl has learned the hard way about the importance of properly securing your Facebook account and configuring your privacy settings appropriately.

She and her grandmother were counting some cash savings, and the teen took a picture of the stash. She then posted it to Facebook, and this is where things went downhill fast.

About eight hours later, two armed men entered the girl’s mother’s home – not even the place where the photo was taken. The mom told the robbers that the girl no longer lived there, but they searched the house and made off with a small amount of cash and other personal items. Thankfully, no one was injured.

This is an isolated and extreme case, but it does show the inherent dangers of posting public photos to Facebook. Parents and guardians should audit the Facebook accounts of their children and make sure everything is set properly.

Researchers last year discovered that even having Facebook items set to ‘Friend of Friends’ can potentially expose your account to 150,000 people!

We recommend that you set any sharing options to just friends and that you only friend people that you know personally. Don’t assume that a person is safe just because some of your friends have befriended them. Scammers are known to infiltrate groups just so they can gain trust and mine the data of everyone they can.

If you need help configuring your Facebook account and privacy options, then see our guide:

How to Lockdown Your Facebook Account For Maximum Privacy and Security

Recommended Resources

BitDefender Safego is a Facebook application you can install that will scan your News Feed and help keep you safe from scams on Facebook.

PRIVATE WiFi® is a Personal VPN that encrypts everything you send and receive. Don’t access Facebook from a public WiFi hotspot without it.

Do Not Track + is a FREE browser plugin created by Abine. This easy to install plugin keeps websites from tracking you. If you value your online privacy, then you should definitely take advantage of this free product.

Action Alert | Free Parental Control offers a 100% free Internet safety solution designed for parents. There is also a Maximum Protection option for parents that need a more advanced set of tools.