The internet has brought an unbelievable freedom to shoppers and people searching out the best retail bargains. And more than ever great numbers of shoppers will be using the internet this Christmas to buy their presents.

But, this is the time when surfers should be at their most cautious. Identity theft via the internet is becoming common and unless you are protected by strong anti-virus, you run the risk of someone literally digitally cloning you and using your electronic profile to get you into all sorts of trouble.

Hackers pinch personal identities for two main reasons. Firstly, they can steal from the identity they’ve just discovered and secondly, they do action things in the name of the identity they have just discovered.

It works like this. People are naturally careless creatures and what might seem like innocent information – a name, and perhaps a date of birth, linked to an address, and maybe the name of their bank – can all be linked together to form a profile of a person. Then, with a little ingenuity, maybe usernames and passwords can be guessed at. And it might not even be guessing, because there are viruses – known as Trojans – which act as key loggers, or stroke replicators, which match the used keys when say accessing an online bank account. These viruses sit on a person’s computer, without them knowing, and pass back the information to the hacker. The hacker then matches a website url – say your bank – with the keys you use when entering your online account. And hey presto, with the other things they know about you, this then represents a profile which can be ‘attacked.’

And usually the hacker won’t use that profile themselves. They prepare the data and sell it on a website where criminals pay for the information, in an auction, and then do with it as they see fit. Not a particularly nice state of affairs, but worth billions to the organised crime gangs who can now steal via computers, and not get their hands dirty.

It can also work in another way. Rather than drain your accounts of your precious money, the hacker decides its more profitable to pose as you and apply for credit, or buy products. Applying for credit, as well as other goods and services, is becoming more popular than just attacking a bank account. Buying goods on credit, or arranging loans, can yield the criminal a far bigger return and it can be some time before the thefts are discovered.

There was a recent scam where East European scammers had created a simple money making machine. They bought personal identities off the criminal websites, then ordered contract mobile phones on their behalf, to be delivered to the homes of chosen accomplices. Once the phones were in the possession of the accomplices, they set about telephoning premium numbers which the gang leaders had set up in Eastern Europe. And because the premium numbers (about £1.50 a minute) were overseas, the mobile phone providers were obliged to pay the call rates before passing the bill onto the unsuspecting people whose identity the phones had been registered. A shock for all parties concerned.

So, yes, Father Christmas is used to being copied by millions across the world. It’s part of the festive fun. But just make sure your identity doesn’t get copied as well and that nice iPhone they’ve ordered for you – which you never got – has been happily ringing a strange Eastern European number. You’ve been warned.

Guest Article by Neil Camp 

Anti-virus security is back on the top of the agenda after it’s been revealed that gangs are becoming ever more sophisticated when it comes to persuading people to download malicious software and then steal personal information.

The gangs are said to have established sophisticated call centres, mainly in Eastern Europe and Asia, in which hundreds of people are employed to cold call contacts in various countries – the UK included – and persuade them that their computer is infected and that the only way to fix the problem, is by downloading particular software onto their computers.

Another way to persuade people is via screen pop-ups which flag a erroneous message which claims that the computer is infected and that the proffered download is the only way to the ‘clean’ the software.

Google confirmed some months ago that it was seeing a huge amount of fake anti-virus software being pedalled on the internet.

The download malicious software is cleverly designed to look like the anti-virus security applications developed by the top companies which produce anti-virus products.

The criminal gangs either use the information they harvest themselves, or sell it to other gangs via online market places.

The UK police take the problem seriously and plot the criminals activities via the Serious and Organised Crime Agency, which is known as Soca. The deputy director of Soca, Sharon Lemon, said:
“In recent cases, we have seen gangs employing 300 to 400 people to run their operations and using call centre-scale set ups to target victims en masse.

“They can also be paying out as much as $150,000 (£92,000) a month to individual webmasters who are unwittingly advertising their fake software – this level of investment from criminals indicates that the returns are much heftier than this.”

The Head of Get Safe Online, Tony Neate, said:
“This is big business, and it’s preying on people’s fears of the internet. The internet is a great place but when somebody phones you up and tells you have a virus on your machine, you will start to panic.”

Experts reckon that some criminal gangs who promote fake anti-virus software applications can generate sales of over four million pounds a year.

Guest Article by Neil Camp 

Antivirus software firms rightly warn against the perils of surfing unprotected, but forget that many cases of data loss and id theft come from more mundane incidents.

Take the recent story from the Press Association which claimed that a highly confidential memory stick, containing details of top secret anti-terrorist measures, was discovered by a Manchester businessman on the pavement outside a police station.

The USB stick had the printed initials GMP POTU on the outside, which was later discovered to stand for: Greater Manchester Police Public Order Training Unit.

And here’s where the stories differ. The businessman who found the
stick said that it contained over 2,000 files which were grouped under a heading: “Manual On Guidance Of Keeping The Peace by the National Police Improvement Agency.” He claimed it was a virtual encyclopaedia of potential measures to counter serious terrorist attacks.

And he told the PA:
“There are even diagrams of crowd control scenes. If this got into the wrong hands, they would be one step ahead of the police all the time. The information in there is dynamite.”

The businessman preferred not to reveal his identity, but the incident happened in Stalybridge, Manchester.

He said the stick also contained personal information about a number of senior police officers and who would do what in the aftermath of a terrorist attack, including coping with such incidents as explosive damage and acid attacks.

Not so say The Greater Manchester Police, who quickly claimed that no sensitive information was on the USB memory stick. They claim that the information was in fact only used for officer safety training and that the majority of it was already in the public domain.

Mike Freeman, a Superintendent of The Greater Manchester Police, told The Independent that:
“I think it is fair to suggest that in most cases, anyone who found an item belonging to GMP outside a police station might do the right thing and hand it in. The person in this instance clearly had other motivations.”

So there! You decide who is right. Did the businessmen have some fun at the police’s expense with a few exaggerations, or are the police cleverly sowing the seeds of a misinformation campaign. Either way, when reading the numerous antivirus software reviews, always remember that it’s not only on the internet that you can lose data.

Guest Article by Neil Camp

But when you do take the time to compare antivirus software products, think sometimes outside of the box.

Take a look at the new service from credit checkers Experian. Called ProtectMyID it has just been launched and is specifically designed to protect consumers from the ever growing threat of ID fraud.

It works by allowing people to use an advanced and comprehensive online service to keep tabs on where their personal information is being stored and read to secure credit.

Experian are worried that identity theft is a growing problem and too few people are properly aware of the dangers they face when shopping on the internet and on the high-street, or banking online. The company’s own figures revealed that the number of identity theft cases with which they were asked to help by their customers, had jumped a massive 20%.

ProtectMyID is based on credit report monitoring which alerts a user – by text, or email – if their name, or other personal information, is attached to a new credit application. Should the user be affected, Experian step in to help and offer guidance.

Peter Turner, the managing director of Experian Interactive, said:
“Identity fraud is one of the fastest growing crimes in the UK and our research shows that organised criminal fraudsters are not solely focusing on the wealthy but are now turning their attention to the wider population.

“There are increasingly higher volumes of less easily detectable crimes being committed against the more vulnerable groups, including the retired and young, low-income families. ProtectMyID is a service aimed to provide that safety net of protection so customers can rest assured that we are keeping an eye on their personal details, even when they can’t.”

In 2009, the Experian research report on identity theft revealed that even though the problem of such fraud was being publicised, it was in fact taking longer for people to realise they were a victim. This suggested to Experian that the people behind the fraud were getting better at covering their tracks, which made it more difficult for the victim, as well as the financial services sector in general.

It can take an alarming 416 days to discover that you have been a victim of fraud; that’s 17 more days than was the case in 2008.

As to what the cost of such fraud was, the average financial loss per person in 2009 was £1,100, with one particular customer reporting a loss of nearly £60,000.

So for those ready to compare antivirus software, don’t forget the other tools out there.

Guest Article by Neil Camp

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Guest Article by Louise Goldstein