The internet is certainly an addictive place. I love it because of the wealth of bits and tidbits of information you can find. Entertainment, news, personal perspectives, odd stuff, humor, gossip, literally everything can be found online. I read a book last time where the author referred to the internet as the international trash bin. There is some truth to that.
It’s also not just about good things here. There are actually plenty of bad stuff and things to beware of. People scamming others of their hard-earned money, copyright violations, scams,viruses, spams, adwares, hacking, identity theft among others.
How come I’m suddenly ranting about this? A few days ago I received an email from a friend who has been working in Canada. On her email she says that she is in dire need of money and something bad happened to her work blah blah blah and she’d be needing our financial help just to tide her over and buy her plane ticket going home. On the email she also requested us to send money via Western Union but the address was in UK. I smelled scam right away. For one, our friend isn’t the sort to do that, plus she has lots of help where she is. Another thing that bugged me was the address. Then I found out all our other friends received the exact email too.
We all decided to ignore it and a few days ago, she posted a message on her friendster account warning everyone that her email has been hacked and most of her contacts has been receiving scam emails and she had no idea how it all happened. It’s a good thing we just ignored those emails then.
I could really now imagine the dangers and pitfalls of things online and why there is a need for anti-viruses, identity theft protection and similar softwares. Above all, being cautious and careful about one’s personal information and other important info is the best way to prevent these things from happening. Those hackers and scammers are getting really more creative and resourceful so it really pays to be careful.
