International courts use Facebook to serve distressed homeowners with foreclosure notices

Big Brother really is watching. And his name is Mark Zuckerberg Facebook.

If you think you can just go off the grid and escape your mortgage obligations, or at least make such an effort to the delay the inevitable, then you better completely disconnect.

No longer are phone calls, emails and random site visits the only means that lenders will leverage to track down homeowners in default. It seems that several governments are going digital, sending foreclosure notices to not-so-hard-to-find people on the worlds leading social network.

The Economic Times reports that a lawyer from Australia led the charge about two years ago. And now courts in New Zealand, Canada and the United Kingdom are following suit .

Check out an example of how it works:

Clever.

Of course, its highly unlikely that lenders in the United States would be able to legally adopt a similar practice anytime soon. There are several roadblocks, including collecting enough proof to convince a court the accountholder is the right person and the page is checked often enough to ensure its a fair path of notification.

There are also privacy and ethical concerns at play such as lawyers friending the target under false pretenses to get past security settings.

Sounds rather diabolical.

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