Any activity that is low risk/high reward will increase. The socialist Thorstein Veblen wrote about the phenomena he called conspicuous consumption which he defined as the ostentatious consumption of goods to provoke the envy of others. Clearly, that its not why anyone participates on this site. But combine that with a type of social media that has sadly generated a tidal wave of juvenile narcissism and we find ourselves the innocent victims of its by-product. Whether it is watches, cars, houses, or anything else that attracts attention, in any society there will be those who will attempt to take advantage of a situation for something that is an object of envy. The phenomena is not new, but the target is. Personally, I always wear timepieces under a shirt cuff and have no desire for anyone else to know what I wear. Along with that, my tastes are in the direction of timepieces that most would not recognise. I am probably more security consciousness than most due to the training I received and environments where I worked. Would I have felt safe in the situation described above? Probably.