Payments

There are a growing number of credit card companies that purport to protect from fraud but they still expect you to take 'reasonable precautions' so think what you are doing at all times. Be aware that there are often other ways of paying for things. If you expect to be making quite a few payments via the internet then we recommend you find out about:

E-mail

If you disclose your e-mail address you are also at risk from being bombarded by unwanted advertisements and spam. While many of these give you the opportunity to un-subscribe, not all of them do. Many of the unwanted e-mails may also be of a somewhat embarrassing nature and some may contain viruses.

Viruses

Viruses are of course another danger. These days it is foolhardy in the extreme to be using the internet without protection from viruses. It is also antisocial as you could be spreading viruses to everyone you send e-mails to or share data with.

Be aware that new viruses are created every day and you need to keep up to date with your anti-virus protection. Fortunately due to competition this does not have to be expensive, but be careful not to install more than one on a machine as they are likely to fight each other!

Spyware

Although not technically Viruses, Spyware can still cause just as much havoc to your system with hangs and crashes whether intentional or not. However the main purpose is to gather information about YOU.

This can then be sent anywhere on the internet. Often the purpose of this is quite benign, intended to determine your likes and dislikes for the purposes of targeted marketing.

Sometimes however the purpose is to try to discover passwords, account information, address-book information etc. This information can then be used to commit fraud or identity theft. Again, you would be well advised to protect yourself from this.

Cookies

There are many myths surrounding cookies, in part because vendors of anti-cookie software want us to worry about them. Cookies are small pieces of data that a website can download to your machine as a record of your visit to their site.

This can be thought of as a 'placeholder' for your last exchanges with them since internet use is inherently anonymous (even knowing your IP address does not really help since most are dynamically allocated and AOL ones are shared anyway).

The purpose is generally to 'personalize' your next visit, make logging-in easier or perhaps to implement a 'shopping cart'. That said, there are web-site creators that are either unscrupulous or incompetent (or both) and any tool can be used as a weapon.

If you provide information to a website, be it credit-card information, telephone numbers, names and addresses or whatever, it may be written to the cookie (hopefully it wouldn't be or it would be encrypted, but it could be).

Cookies will only contain information that you have provided. They cannot scan your computer looking for information like spyware so they will not contain sensitive information unless you have already provided it to a site that you have (presumably) already decided to trust.

The bottom line is don't provide information that you consider sensitive to those you don't trust! See 'Maintaining State' and Cookie Central for more information. If you want to take control have a look at Cookie Pal.

There's one born every minute, make sure your not one of them.

But all that aside, the internet provides a growing market place and since products can be sold without large premises, middle-men and staff, there are many legitimate discounts to be had.

Just use a bit of common-sense. What is not said is often more important than what is said. Vendors may often have hidden agendas and their own incentives and disincentives.

Look after yourself

Are you sitting comfortably? If not, check out the advice
in the Safety & Comfort Guide from hp.

Shred it

One last point. Identity theft is becoming a major problem. It may be worthwhile investing in an inexpensive paper shredder for papers containing sensitive information. All those application forms that have 'thoughtfully' been partly pre-filled for you for example!