Now our caring government has inadvertently shared the names, addresses, birth dates and bank account details of all the 25 million people in this country who have children with potential fraudsters and criminals (aren’t you amazed they could fit all that on two CD-Roms?), we are going to have to be a bit more vigilant about our security online. Eek.
First of all, there’s Facebook, which I like but gives potential fraudsters access to our birthdates, phone numbers, addresses and anything else we are trusting enough to post online: especially if we don’t take care with our privacy settings. Check out this link for a quick Facebook detox.
Hmm. Makes you think twice about ID cards, doesn’t it?
I was feeling quite smug, having been reasonably cautious about Facebook, but then read a scary blog post about Tagged. I signed up for this because a friend sent me an invite, but got nervous at the bit where it asked me for my gmail and hotmail account passwords (I’d already given those to Facebook … oops. I won’t do that again. Not really worth it to contact people you already know). This turned out to be lucky because it apparently then spams people on your email contacts list.. forever. So my own friends have had a lucky escape, but it hasn’t stopped Tagged from spamming me with friend requests from teenage boys. I’ve now cancelled my account and unsubscribed, so am hoping that will be it.
My online bank account is so hard to get into that I’ve now given up, and returned to the unopened envelope system (stick it on the pile, and hope it goes away!), so here’s hoping any potential thieves feel the same way. But the best way to find out about fraud is to read your bank statements. So ignorance is no longer bliss.
