High expectations come with those one or two weeks away that we all look forward to the whole year. But imagine if you not only lost all the money you’ve been putting away for that dream holiday, but you turned up in sunny Spain to find that not only does your holiday not exist, but that you had nowhere to stay and three young children screaming in the back seat of your rather hot hire car at the end of a long day?

Unfortunately, this has been the case for a few unlucky holiday makers caught out fraudsters.

Scams targeting tourists are not new – from bogus local ‘policemen’ to passport theft, fraudsters have long been aware of what easy targets holidaymakers make. However, with many of us now turning to the variety and convenience of the web to find our perfect holiday, the fraudsters are of course following. The anonymity of the web makes it much easier for criminals to pull the wool over our eyes and to target significant numbers of people at any one time – they only need one to respond to make it worth their while.

Of course, most of us are lucky enough to book our holidays online with no problems at all. However, it’s easy to get caught out, and for those that do, the effects can be devastating. Not only can you lose fairly substantial sums of money, the upset of having to turn around and go back home can put a real dampener on your summer.
 
Worryingly, the research we released today  reveals that over two-thirds of UK web users have never heard of the most common scams, and that around 1 in 3 are putting themselves at increased risk by not following basic anti-fraud measures, such as checking whether the operator is a member of a recognised travel authority, doing background checks and looking out for signs of a secure website.

If you’re about to book that last minute getaway, check out our new Travel Essentials Checklist on the Getsafeonline.org website first. We’ve put this together with ABTA to help make holidays the relaxing experience they should be!

 “I update my computer whenever I am told to do so by some message that appears on the screen, so I’m safe”

Unfortunately more and more security professionasl I speak to tell me updating the software on a machine is now more important than updating the operating system. Yes it is important to update your applications, but not more important. I believe you are as secure as the weakest link in your system, so updating both the operating system and all applications are critical, for both the user and the general security of the web.

However the new important update is now the computer user, we all need to protect ourselves from the threats that appear on a daily basis by updating our knowledge of what new and existing threats are out there. It’s only with this additional education and knowledge that the end user will not become the weakest part of the security link……!

Yesterday at the QEII Conference Centre in London saw opening of The UK Council for Child Internet Safety Summit. The Council was a recommendation in Professor Tanya Byron’s report ‘Safer Children in a Digital World’

The primary purpose of the summit was to launch the Child Internet Safety Strategy. The summit provided an opportunity to discuss the strategy, showcase recent research findings and highlight the good progress made so far in delivering on the child online safety agenda.

The event also had a public facing element with the launch of the internet safety code and three cartoon characters that will help remind children of some of do’s and don’ts to safe use of the internet, I think these character are great and can be used by anyone  on the internet to highlight the internet safety message to children. More information can be found on the UKCCIS website. http://www.dcsf.gov.uk/ukccis

It’s that time of year again, and with people’s pockets feeling stretched, many of us will be looking online to find those bargain buys. Shopping online offers convenience, choice and value for money. However, wherever there is money being exchanged, you can be sure there are fraudsters waiting to take advantage of anyone who’s not aware of the risks and fully protected.

It doesn’t mean avoiding the internet, but just making sure you don’t make life easy for fraudsters. As part of Get Safe Online Week, Ofcom has published a new video setting out steps consumers can take and things they should look out for when shopping online this Christmas. Well worth a look before splashing your cash.

Click here to view the embedded video.

As reported on cnet, according to @spam there’s a worm going round on Twitter. Related to, but not necessarily caused by, a website called StalkDaily.com, it infects users’ profile pages, sends spam messages (‘tweets’) and can cause Twitter to lock users out of their account, requiring a password reset.

Twitter is a cross between blogging, instant messaging and SMS. (See Wikipedia’s definition for more information.)

Our advice:

• Report spam to @spam and other issues directly to Twitter. If you can’t log in, email support@twitter.com.
• Don’t open a link in a message that relates to StalkDaily.com or click on the sender’s profile.
• Get additional help and information from Twitter’s Support centre.
• Follow @GetSafeOnline on Twitter and get the latest blog posts, alerts and warnings from GetSafeOnline.org.

HM Revenue & Customs warn taxpayers and businesses that fraudsters are sending out fake, spoof emails in their name.

They give the following advice:

• Always check that you can see the padlock when you give confidential information on a website.
• An email that doesn’t use your name (e.g. “dear customer”) is likely to be a fake.
• A bogus sender, such as the names of departments that don’t exist.
• Embedded links in the email. They may look like the real thing but if you hover your mouse over them, you’ll see a different address ‘underneath’.

In general, we recommend that you don’t click on links in any email. It’s better to type in a known and trusted address.

You can forward fake HMR&C emails to phishing@hmrc.gsi.gov.uk and read more advice from HMR&C on their website. You can learn how to stop unwanted email on GetSafeOnline.org.

According to Postini, an anti-spam company, 94 percent of all email on the internet is spam (hat tip: New York Times).

Since a large proportion of spam emails also contain viruses, it’s obvious that spam protection is also virus protection.

For more information, read GetSafeOnline’s guide to protecting yourself from spam.

April 1st is rumoured to be ‘activation day’ for the widespread Conficker worm. As mentioned in our January alert and blog post, We advise Windows users to download and install the latest updates for their operating system and to update their anti-virus software. Visit GetSafeOnline.org for free, independent security tips and advice.

Identity theft is a worry for many people. Our research shows that nearly a quarter (23%) of people or someone they knew had been the victim of a phishing scam. Halifax Home Insurance report that identity theft is a major worry for 55% of people, second only to burglary.

So, insurance against it sounds like a good idea?

No, according to LoveMoney.com, it is an “expensive rip-off.” Instead of a £60-80 a year insurance policy, replacing key documents costs much less and you can buy protection registration yourself for £13.80 – a considerable saving.

Here are ten tips from LoveMoney.com about avoiding identity theft. You can also read Get Safe Online’s advice and tips on fixing things if you have become a victim.

According to research by security firm Sophos, a third of people use the same password for a number of different websites. This isn’t good practice because identity thieves could steal or deduce the password for one site and use it on many others. See GetSafeOnline.org’s advice about strong passwords for more information.

(Hat tip: PC World)

E-Crime Wales have developed an excellent, Welsh version of Space Invaders.

According to research by Dell, business travellers in the US and Europe lose 15,648 laptops per week. 900 of these go missing each week at Heathrow alone.

Hat tip: IT Pro

For more advice on protecting your laptop see our articles:

• Don’t let thieves steal your computer
• How to report a lost or stolen computer