Webupon

The internet is getting increasingly popular and about 25% of the world’s population now have access to it, as of 2009. In other words, more than 1.5 billion people are on the web.

That means there is an enormous market appealling to scammers and hackers. With well over 100 million active users on online social networking sites, it is only logical that there will be an equally proportional number of people trying to befool and trick these users.

So now getting to the main point, you need to be very safe on the internet. Every thing you write, say or upload is recorded and stored, even if you delete it off your account. So therefore, you have to be very careful with what you say and what you do on the world wide web.

People often fail to realize the potential dangers of giving out personal information. It is therefore that millions of people of all ages on online socializing sites give out their private information such as age, family status, residential adress, school/office, phone numbers and other such data.

The problem with doing this, is that you are basically paving a path for robbers, kidnappers and scammers to get to you. For example, say a kidnapper is watching and noting down all the information a 13 year old boy has put up on the web. After a little while, this guy figures out the kid loves cars, his parents are strict and that he would do anything to get behind the wheel.

Since the little boy has foolishly dispersed this information to friends or whoever, the kidnapper (after hacking into the system) now also knows about it and is going to use it in his favor! So he writes an email to the kid and says something like, “while walking home from school this Friday, stop over at place XYZ and I’ll let you drive a modded roadster for just a dollar” (so it seems real).

Naturally, the kid can’t resist and is going to hurry to get to XYZ only to find out 15 minutes later that he’d been fooled and is now in the midst of a serious scam. The story can go on, but the lesson here is avoid giving information about yourself, family or friends on the web. The best place to talk about such things is either through e-mail or by a telephonic conversation (which are still dangerous, but a lot safer than on a public forum).

Similarly, a robber can take advantage of knowing personal information and can safely go on a crime spree with minimal friction and with extremely low chances of getting caught – because he knows the adress, he knows when the family will be on vacation, he knows the kind of neighbors and what not!

The point I’m trying to make, is that when you get on the WWW, you need to be extremely careful with what kind of information you let out. Never ever expose your real adress, phone numbers or other information which make strangers no stranger than your best friend.

Be smart, be safe and be alert. Good luck!