Greg's Corner

The social network detectives

With the advent and ubiquity of social media most people have to worry about embarrassing photos of themselves from being disseminated into the social stream. It’s not unheard of that a drunken picture posted by a friend on MySpace back in the day to cost someone a job or other opportunities.

Now imagine that you’re trying to commit workman’s comp or disability fraud. You would think that these fraudsters would keep their activities off of social media. Then again, no one ever said that criminals were smart. CBS/CNET has a great article about how a group of claims investigators use social networking tools to investigate these types of fraud.

The amazing thing from that article is the lengths people will go to try to disguise their identity so they can commit fraud and continue to post their daily lives on social media. For example, one man claimed he had an injury where he was unable to walk, yet he was posting on social media about how he was running marathons. Gotta get that 26.2 sticker I guess.

What is it about social media that makes people not only over-share details of their lives that could put them in potential danger, but in some cases they risk jail time? The 1970s were called the ‘me decade’ since so many people were looking to improve their own lives through what was then new and unconventional means. Maybe the 2010s should be called the Me Decade II since so many of our lives are driven by likes and subscribers.