Identity Theft: Beware of Free Giveaways
Posted on June 27, 2008
Online surfers and consumers should take great care when being offered something for free. There has been a marked growth of free giveaways online in an effort to attract customers and develop an ongoing relationship with clients.
Offering free goods can be very productive. The consumer feels happy to have received something for nothing and the business is happy because they have begun a communication trail starting with that person's email or physical address. Free gifts can often be "no-cost" to the businesses themselves, often taking the form of downloadable digital media (for example ebooks or audio files). This would explain, in part, the meteoric rise in such handouts.
But, the consumer should beware. The exchange of data for a perceived benefit could mean that their own personal information ends up in the hands of someone who will use that information for criminal activities including email scams and identity theft. Worse still, is that data could be distributed throughout the internet to organised individuals and gangs who will then use it to target you permanently. Their incentive will be to extract further information from you and, eventually, to extract your money.
Surveys indicate that over 80% of online consumers are prepared to give their personal information in exchange for a free gift. This is most often at shopping sites where they have not yet made a purchase (or, more importantly, where the retailer has not yet made a sale). Most consumers are happy to give email information, and nearly 50% would exchange names and physical addresses. What is potentially more worrying is that consumers are also prepared, in some instances, to share information on their date of birth, income and telephone numbers. Information such as this, as well as being a security risk, is highly sought after by online (and offline) companies and it is surprising that consumers are prepared to part with it for very little benefit.
For further information and resources on identity theft, internet crime and online security visit the New Identity Theft website operated by Eric Hartwell.
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