Internet Fraud Victims Neglect Basic Security Measures

The U.K. government, police and private companies conducted a survey under the Get Safe Online campaign and found that online fraud victimized one in ten computer users. Also as consumers' expenditure on Internet increased to 30bn pounds per annum, victims of online fraud suffered losses by 875 pounds per individual.

The problem partly occurred because majority of UK's Internet users assumed that banks and ISPs took care of their financial security during online transactions, according to the survey.

The Get Safe Online MD, Tony Neate said that the Internet had virtually become the "real world". BBC News published Neate's statement on March 25, 2007. He further said that just as no one blames the police when a burglary takes place in a house, in the same way users should bear the responsibility of working online, just as they would secure their houses and vehicles. In the survey, almost half of the respondents said they did not deploy spyware program on their PCs. Thus by not assuming basic measures, such users neglected their security conditions.

Other respondents admitted ignoring experts' advice. One in five people replied to spam mails and 10% clicked on links appearing in them.

Some more statistics showed that 5% of people using the Internet suffered deception while shopping online, 4% had been victims of identity theft and 3% gave out their bank details to online thieves.

According to Garreth Griffith, head of trust and safety at eBay U.K., it was important to ensure that shoppers received knowledge and education before taking on their spending frolic. BBC News published Griffith's statement on March 25, 2007. He said eBay had a safety center, which offered information and tutorials. But the company faced a larger challenge in getting users to go through them.

EBay has been receiving fraudsters' attacks. The survey revealed that 18% of eBay shoppers replied to spam mails.

Sharon Lemon of the Serious and Organized Crime Agency lamented that there is usually no reports of crimes in this area. Defacing websites was something people did to flaunt their skills. Now they realize they can make money out of it, Lemon said.

Related article: Internet Threat Volumes Overwhelm Security Companies

» SPAMfighter News - 4/6/2007