Oversharing On Social Media Could Increase Your Risk Of Being Scammed

NEW YORK (CBSNewYork) -- A Westchester County couple was targeted by con artists who used social media to learn where they live and tracked their location.

As CBS2's Brian Conybeare explained, there are ways that you can protect yourself from the same thing happening to you.

Carol Ann Martinez and her husband Hector were shaken by the sophisticated phone scam they were caught in on Thursday.

The Cortlandt couple said it started with a call from a mystery man who said Carol Ann hit his nephew in the parking lot of the Northern Westchester Medical Center in Mount Kisco.

"My sister was having major back surgery. I posted on Facebook that she was OK; the surgery went fine," she said.

After the post, the con artist called Hector's phone demanding money to pay for the accident victim's medical expenses, or they would keep beating Carol Ann, who they claimed to kidnap.

"There was a woman screaming hysterically 'Hector, Hector," Hector recalled, "Don't call the police, cause if you call the police we're gonna hurt her more,' and I was like, 'I'm gonna pay."

Hector wired nearly $1,300 from a local Walmart before discovering that his wife was safe and that the scammers likely used social media and web searches to target them.

Cyber security expert Paul Oster said most social media users aren't aware how much information they make public everyday.

"If you have your location setting on they know what time you leave your house, where you stop for coffee, where you go to the gym," he said.

Oster suggested turning off location services that automatically identify your location, use privacy settings to limit who can see your content, delay posting photos and videos that show where you are until you get home, and limit personal information.

In the past 24 hours, CBS2 has been contacted by five other victims of similar scams. Police said never give out personal information to strangers who call, email, or contact you on social media.

They also suggested having a secret code word that only family members know to verify their identity in the event of an emergency.