Naive heirs of the super-wealthy are putting their family assets at risk by flaunting their lavish lifestyles on social media, cyber-security experts have warned.

Sites like Instagram have increasingly become the place for brash, affluent youngsters to boast of their supercars, yachts and private jets.

But they are unwittingly exposing their families to scrutiny from fraud investigators and criminals.

Leading cybersecurity firms say they now use social media posts as evidence in around 75 per cent of all litigation cases.

Oisín Fouere, managing director of K2 Intelligence in London, said social media had become its "first port of call" when scrutinising the dealings of the mega-rich.

In one debt recovery case where a man claimed to have no items of significant value, one of his children gave the game away by posing on the family’s £12 million super-yacht in the Bahamas.