i’ve never posted a haul and never will. it makes me paranoid enough even describing the events that have happened, in specific shops. people are so traceable it’s insane, have you seen those tiktoks where people are tracked from an empty profile because of something like their profile pic or combination of numbers in their url? I have no doubt if p*lice wanted to they could identify all of us, but th*ft isn’t a serious enough cr*me anymore to warrant the time, money and effort spent on tracking people from here. i assume you all know about “anti” weirdos though, who dedicate their time to identifying and reporting us - and that is enough to put you off posting hauls or going into too much detail about anything.
digital footprint is real. when you delete posts they’re never really deleted on tumblr, people can still reblog from other people who have reblogged your post. all of your content is still in the database even if you edit your post or deactivate your blog. this isn’t like twitter or instagram. the wayback machine is also a thing, trawling the web for pages to snapshot. don’t think turning off your blog in search results will stop that either. the best way to avoid being traced is to avoid giving up the info or posting the pics in the first place. when you press the post button you gift your words or that picture to potentially the whole world, you are never going to be able to control it once it’s out there.
it’s why i never go into real detail often, i don’t post my age, i keep my profile really vague, i don’t post pictures and i definitely wouldn’t post pictures of a unique combination of items, with the shops listed, with the £ amount listed, without a plain unidentifiable background. that’s just stupid. be vague. listing different shops is unlikely to help anyone anyway, security measures for shops change from branch to branch from shopping centre to shopping centre.
if you want to share information then teach people how to actually identify easy or hard shops, how to scout/scan shops for blind spots, for LP or security or barriers or RFID tags, what to expect from a high street shop vs a superstore, how to lift in a busy shop or a quiet shop, how to use the dressing room to your advantage, how to not give off shoplifter energy, how to stay calm, and how to be calm and clever and to stay coherent and rational when you’re caught (because you will be eventually🥵).
i’ve seen people basically saying “oh, boots is sooo easy! it’s so safe in the printing section”…… it will without a doubt be different in every shop, and different depending on the time of day and time of year too. you have to use different strategies. you have to learn to read the person and situation, and to use this skill to use a different manipulation technique when you’re caught depending on the person who has caught you. you can’t say one thing just works when the individual situations are going to be so different. anyway i’ve gone way off track here 🫢
a good rule - for most things boasting and showing off won’t help you in any way- online or in real life. be proud of yourself for the naughty things you do in private or amongst close friends! i don’t need the approval of strangers and neither do you 💘