Greg's Corner

Your Vacation Photos Could Help Scammers Find You

By Greg Collier

Posting vacation photos while you’re still traveling has always carried some privacy risks. Now, cybersecurity experts warn that artificial intelligence is making those risks much more serious.

A photo that seems to reveal nothing more than a nice dinner, a hotel room, or a scenic vacation spot can contain clues that help scammers determine where you are. And once criminals know your location, they may have a much easier time making a scam appear believable.

AI Can Read More Into a Photo Than You Can

Most people probably don’t think twice about what information is contained in a vacation picture. You might see a beach, a restaurant, or a city street. An AI system, however, can analyze details that humans might overlook.

A sign in the background could contain the name of a business or neighborhood. A restaurant menu could reveal a city. Street signs, hotel logos, landmarks, and even distinctive vegetation can provide clues about where a photograph was taken.

Cybersecurity experts have warned that scammers can use AI to analyze those clues and determine a traveler’s location even when the person never identifies it in the caption.

That creates a new opportunity for scammers. Instead of sending a generic message to thousands of people, they can potentially tailor their approach to what they know about you and where you are.

The Scam Could Start With Your Vacation

Imagine posting a photograph from your hotel while you’re visiting another country.

A few hours later, you receive a message claiming to be from the airline. There’s supposedly a problem with your reservation, and you need to pay a small fee immediately.

Or perhaps a message claims to come from the hotel, saying your credit card didn’t process correctly and asking you to click a link to update your payment information.

The scammer doesn’t have to guess that you’re traveling. Your photograph has already provided the clue.

Another version could involve impersonating a government agency. A scammer who determines that you’re overseas could send a frightening message claiming that you’ve failed to pay an exit tax or another travel-related fee. The demand might be relatively small, but the threat could be much more serious.

Pay immediately, the message might claim, or face problems at customs the next time you travel.

That’s the kind of pressure scammers love.

Your Family Could Become the Target

There’s another potentially disturbing use for information from vacation posts.

Scammers may not necessarily contact you at all.

Suppose your social media posts reveal that you’re traveling. They could combine that information with other publicly available details about your family and friends. AI-generated voices could then make it possible to impersonate you in a phone call.

A relative could receive a call supposedly from you, claiming that you’re stranded, injured, or having trouble while traveling.

“I need help.”

“I lost my wallet.”

“I’m in trouble and need money.”

Those stories are much more convincing when the scammer actually knows that you’re on vacation.

The relative may even see your recent vacation photographs on social media and think, Of course they’re traveling. This must be real.

The Problem With Posting in Real Time

There’s nothing inherently dangerous about sharing vacation photographs. The problem is when you share them and how much information they reveal.

Posting a photograph after you return home is very different from announcing to the world that you’re currently sitting at a particular restaurant hundreds or thousands of miles away.

Real-time posts can potentially tell criminals that your home is vacant. They can also provide information about your itinerary, hotel, travel companions, and approximate location.

AI potentially makes all of that information easier to analyze.

That means the harmless-looking photograph of your family enjoying dinner could become one piece of a much larger information puzzle.

Don’t Trust a Message Just Because It Knows Where You Are

This is an important point for travelers.

If you receive a message that appears to come from an airline, hotel, government agency, restaurant, or financial institution and the sender knows you’re traveling, that doesn’t prove the message is legitimate.

In fact, knowing that you’re traveling could be the reason the scammer contacted you in the first place.

Don’t click the link in the message. Don’t call the telephone number provided in it. Instead, find the organization’s legitimate website or use its official app and contact the company through a channel you know is genuine.

The same rule applies if someone contacts you claiming to be a family member.

If a relative suddenly says they are in trouble and need money, contact them using a phone number you already have for them. Don’t rely on the number or communication method provided by the person contacting you.

Your Vacation Doesn’t Need a Live Broadcast

The simplest defense may also be one of the easiest.

Consider waiting until you get home before posting your vacation photographs.

If you do post while traveling, review what the photograph reveals. Look for hotel names, street signs, boarding passes, restaurant receipts, room numbers, and other identifying information. Check your social media privacy settings and consider limiting who can see your posts.

You don’t have to assume every vacation photograph is going to be analyzed by a criminal. But you should recognize that today’s scammers have tools that didn’t exist a few years ago.

The old advice was to think twice before sharing too much personal information online.

With AI becoming increasingly capable of extracting information from photographs, “too much information” may now include things you never realized you were revealing.

Your vacation photos are supposed to be memories. Don’t accidentally turn them into a roadmap for a scammer.