Mal Fletcher comments

Mal Fletcher

News last week that criminals are buying personal identities for as little as 50 pence, should come as no great surprise.

In an age where almost everything from cash to family contact is being digitised, it's not hard to see huge opportunities for scams large and small.

According to a new study on Internet security, fraudsters can now buy your credit card details, your name, address and date of birth for less than the cost of a can of coke.

Data collected from over 200 countries showed 349.6 billion spam messages were sent in 2008, a 192% increase on the previous year.

In the midst of all this, more and more people are handing over details of their identities to criminals, via phishing websites. These are designed to mirror trustworthy web pages, and users are fooled into giving away their username, password and even bank details.

There are no guarantees of absolute security, but are there ways we can minimize the likelihood of falling victim to phishing and other forms of Internet scamming? The following will help:

1. Keep It Real

In an age of growing dependence on virtual reality and other web-based tools, technology trackers are noticing the growing presence of a counter-trend.

There is a huge and growing need for high touch in the age of high-tech; a desire to challenge the social fragmentation that sometimes accompanies our reliance on technology.

As ingenious as ever, people are now using messaging to set up "spontaneous" live events, via "smart mobbing" which draws large groups to public places for demonstrations or celebrations.

In an age of cyber-this and cyber-that, it helps to consciously and deliberately seek out new opportunities to interact in face-to-face environments.

We need to constantly explore new ways of maintaining a real world 'first life' before we lose ourselves in an online Second Life!

Cyberspace is a nice place to visit, but you shouldn't have to live there!

2. Don't Digitise Emotion