Whether you’re on the way to your family for Christmas this year, or your already there you:

Better watch out, Better not cry! Better not pout! We're telling you why, Santa Claus is coming to rob you!

Clearly Santa Claus isn't going to rob you, but someone might if you use your Facebook status updates to tell all the world that you “left” for Christmas and your house is free to be robbed.

We recently reported that Facebook is apparently seeing a marked increase in associated crime. Well according to reports from the BBC, the Internet is now the number one tool for criminals - an issue that is highlighted all the more as people go away during the Christmas period and update their Facebook pages with their away status.

Yes, there's nothing the media likes more than instilling a little mild panic into the nation, especially at Christmas, but an increased risk of burglary is quite possibly a risk you run if you decide to place your whereabouts on social networking services.

Our advice, basically, is to avoid the obvious topics about your whereabouts, your home and whether you're going away; also stay off Facebook Places unless you're sure you've got all your privacy settings just right as you can never be 100 per cent sure who can see the info.

The BBC has a video report on its website of a family who have suffered numerous burglaries, in their mind, due to Facebook updates. You can find out more at www.bbc.co.uk/news