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ALMOST ONE IN five of internet users in the United States have had important personal data such as bank account information stolen and the problem appears to be getting worse, a survey showed Monday.
The Pew Research Center study carried out in January showed a sharp increase to 18 per cent from mid-2013, when 11 per cent reported being victimized.
The survey also found 21 per cent reported having email or social network accounts compromised, the same percentage as last year.
The findings come amid growing concern over the “Heartbleed” vulnerability discovered earlier this month, and months after US retail giant Target acknowledged millions of customers may have had payment cards compromised.
“As online Americans have become ever more engaged with online life, their concerns about the amount of personal information available about them online have shifted as well,” the Pew researchers wrote.
“Internet users have become more worried about the amount of personal information available about them online — 50 per cent reported this concern in January 2014, up from 33 per cent in 2009.”
The report is based on a survey of 1,002 adults from January 23 to 26, including 820 Internet users. The margin of sampling error for the Internet users is estimated at four percentage points.
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Survey also finds 20% of Americans are awaiting their winnings from the Nigerian National Lotto!
Don’t allow online retailers to store your card details, a minor inconvenience filling in numbers each time. Use a prepaid debit card like the Visa from o2 and keep the balance small. That’s if you want to stay safe.
I got a notice a few months ago from my bank that my account had been compromised and access was granted to criminals etc. Odd, however, as I my balance stayed at 5.12euro……..
And how many have hard their cards skimmed when using them in bricks and mortar places? It has happened to me three times in my last four visits to the US (and never anywhere else).
Much safer to use a 3v or an O2 prepaid visa. It gives you peace of mind , so many scams out there and with microsoft pulling support for xp, which a lot of people use, your computer has a much higher chance of falling victim to one. A few months ago I got a text from a Vodafone number saying someone had sent me flowers, followed the link which left me to an identical Vodafone.ie page to enter my login details, page was just a replica, something to watch out for!
Yeah it called phishing. Always visit the site from a browser to login & don’t use links. 3v & the likes is handy but the fees for topping up are absurd. Crypto currencies are the future of online payments.
1in 5 Americans are particularly stupid …..
Everybody thinks that they are too smart for this to happen to them until it does.
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