Over the last few years the world has seen an explosion with the Internet and social media.
Even grandma and grandpa are using Facebook and Twitter to keep in touch with friends and family members.
However, when properly used, social media can be a great outlet for keeping in touch with your friends.
There is a dark side to social media outlets.
Many people just about be friend everybody all for the sake of feeling popular.
Corporations and even criminals are using social media to extract information about potential customers and even marks.
Employers have even been known to keep an eye on their employees online.
Something as simple as a joke can turn into a disaster if the wrong person reads it.
All of this can even correspond with financial matters.
If an individual is considering filing bankruptcy the last thing they will want to do is post any information about their financial problems online.
While, not too many people are stupid enough to write about their failures because of their pride, it works another way.
Some people brag to the world about everything that happens to them all the way down the GED out in a restaurant.
You can find out a lot about someone online, even that kind of car they drive.
Being stressed out because of your finances is no fun.
Making the decision to file for bankruptcy can add to the stress.
Usually, when someone makes a decision to file for bankruptcy they will hire a bankruptcy lawyer to represent them.
Initially, the bankruptcy lawyer will gather a list of information regarding the individual's income, property and other assets.
The bankruptcy lawyer will then take all this information and complete the bankruptcy petition to be filed with the court.
Once the bankruptcy petition is filed, all of the creditors will be notified of the pending bankruptcy filing.
The debtor and the bankruptcy lawyer will then attend the 341 meeting or meeting of creditors and meet the bankruptcy trustee for the first time.
The bankruptcy trustee will ask a few questions regarding the individual's property and income that was found in the bankruptcy petition schedules.
If there are no creditors attending the meeting and the bankruptcy trustee has no other questions, all the individual filing bankruptcy needs to do is wait for the bankruptcy discharge to come in the mail.
This all sounds easy enough.
You never know who's watching you.
The bankruptcy trustee could be questioning the truthfulness of the bankruptcy petition.
Nowadays, one of the first places they will look is online.
All it would take is someone to be bragging about the expensive vacation they are taking next month or the car they're planning on buying.
They think their audience is only their friends and they feel safe.
Any of this talk could raise suspicions for creditors and/or the bankruptcy trustee.
The information that is put on social media might not even be true but can cause a huge problem for the bankruptcy lawyer.
The bankruptcy lawyer might have some explaining to do with the bankruptcy trustee.
If the information is correct, the individual filing bankruptcy can lose their chance to get their bankruptcy discharge because of not being truthful when providing information for the bankruptcy petition.
Because of all this, when someone is filing bankruptcy its best off to be low key and stay off the web.