A case involving a potential home invasion should serve as a warning to jewelers of the dangers of revealing too much personal information on Facebook, the Jewelers’ Security Alliance says.

According to Bob Frank, JSA vice president, a suspected gang was recently found with pictures of a local jeweler’s family, obtained from Facebook. An alert citizen notified policeman about the suspicious individuals hanging around a small rural town train station, talking on a two-way radio, and an arrest was made.

“We don’t know what they were planning, but all the scenarios are scary,” Frank says. “I understand that people want to use Facebook for advertising. But jewelers should be careful about putting anything personal on there. There are too many bad people out there.”

He also advises jewelers not to put pictures of their home on any social networks, or any indications of their home address. He also warned that jewelers need to beware of putting pictures of their children or family on professional accounts, or on their company’s website.

JSA has also cautioned against jewelers using location-based check-in services like Foursquare or Facebook Places.

“You have to give real thought to what you tell the world,” Frank says. “You don’t want to give anyone planning a crime any insight into your personal life or your habits. You don’t want to put anything personal that could lead them to your home or family. Even the most security-minded person can give all this attention to their store security but they tend to forget about it when they walk out the door.”

JCK