Hughes blog post: Sharing holidays on social media

Among the many things we like to share with family and friends are our holiday photos and stories.

Undoubtedly social media has helped us to do that. Every week on my Facebook network, I see photos from travelling friends, whether they’re doing the big overseas jaunt or a week in Queensland.

But of course, there are always people out there to spoil it for us. My colleague Mark found an article recently on Travel Weekly, where the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission warned travellers “not to provide details of their holiday on social networking sites after scammers were found to be using the information to con friends and family”.

The ACCC stated that “fraudsters are using a person’s  information on social networking sites to send bogus distress emails to family and friends asking them to wire money”.

Way to take the fun out of a holiday!

So, what can you do?

Firstly, ensure your social networks settings are set to be as private as possible. On Facebook for example, make sure you look through the Privacy Settings under your Account and ensure “Only Friends” is switched on for all updates.

But then you might want to take this a step further. Simply don’t share your holiday stories and photos until you return home. There’ll be plenty of time for your family and friends to pore over them and enjoy!

- Michelle Prak