Through Twitter, among others, people were asked to come up with practical examples of the use of social media by criminals. Many responses concern identity fraud. Various government organisations have already been victims of this form of fraud, in which someone deliberately uses a Twitter or Facebook account; sometimes for criminal purposes. Other examples are football hooligans who incite each other via social media to riot, or as is happening in England these days. Threats and insults also seem to be taking place more and more via social media. The distribution of illegal music, films and software is also easy via all kinds of social networks from one computer to another. When the example of fraud in the Habbo Hotel – a virtual youth hotel where you can drop by and make friends – comes up, it seems that all forms of crime can also take place virtually.
Finally…
As with all daily activities, we believe that common sense should be the guiding italy phone number list factor in our actions to prevent crime. Realize in advance what the consequences of a Twitter or Facebook message can be. If you have considered everything and taken preventive measures, it does not matter whether you post holiday photos on Facebook. In our discussions and writing, we advise the police to include the use of social media as standard in the interrogation plans and in descriptions of modus operandi. Only then can the police take more targeted action to combat the crime that arises from social media. And not to forget, the police can use these concrete examples to inform citizens. The question of whether criminals really use social media in their daily work remains open to us: perhaps a criminologist could do a PhD on this topic?