Leader: Gone publishing for scams
Published 30 Sep 2011 09:30
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WHEN Tim Berners-Lee invented the world wide web in 1989, he was maybe the only one who realised the enormous impact it was destined to have on every aspect of society, business, government, education, and our private lives.
Without doubt a virtually infinite source of knowledge, information and communication could only be good thing, couldn't it?
Sadly, over the intervening 22 years the internet's darker, more sinister side has also been explored and exploited by wicked men and women for a variety of motives.
In the past fortnight alone we have reported on a young man from Reading jailed for 'trolling' - posting vile pictures and messages on memorial pages of social networking sites - and today on the bullying 'scammers' who have been attempting to terrorise a nurse and mother from Burghfield Common.
Many people, often older computer users, have received calls from these scammers recently.
When someone who sounds like they know what they are talking about says they have noticed from their records that you are experiencing some problems with your laptop, the chances are that at one stage or another you have - and there you are, hooked by phishers.
It was inevitable that this kind of thing might happen once the lid was lifted from such a Pandora's Box as the internet, and it is utterly unrealistic to imagine that lid ever being replaced.
But we must hope pacesetting technology will never allow computer screens to become nothing more than a source of fear.
This article appeared in Reading Chronicle 29 Sep 11
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