Flaunting wealth on social media may cost dearly

04 April 2016 - 02:19 By Sarah Knapton, © The Telegraph

Naive heirs of the super-wealthy are putting their family assets at risk by flaunting their lavish lifestyles on social media, cyber-security experts have warned. Sites such as Instagram have increasingly become the place for brash, affluent youngsters to boast of their super cars, yachts and private jets.But they are unwittingly exposing their families to scrutiny from fraud investigators and criminals.Leading cyber security firms say they now use social media posts as evidence in 75% of all cases.Oisín Fouere, managing director of K2 Intelligence in London, said social media had become its "first port of call" when scrutinising the dealings of the mega-rich.In one debt recovery case in which a man claimed to have no items of significant value, one of his children gave the game away by posing on the family's £12-million (about R250-million) super-yacht in the Bahamas.Daniel Hall, director of global judgment enforcement at Burford Capital, told the Observer newspaper that people caught out in such cases tended to be "of a slightly older vintage" who did not understand the global reach of sites such as Facebook and Twitter.His firm recently seized a "newly acquired private jet" in a fraud case because one of the two fraudsters had a son in his 30s who posted a photo on Instagram of himself and his father in front of the plane."That's the kind of jackpot scenario one hopes for," said Hall.And even those who should be well aware of dangers of social media are still not getting the message. In March rapper 50 Cent was ordered by a US court to explain how he had posed with stacks of $100 bills which spelt out the word "broke" after filing for bankruptcy. He claimed the money was fake. ..

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