I had a call recently from a customer who asked me to remove him from the internet, as he had been a victim of identity theft.

I was quite alarmed by this and agreed to visit as soon as I could to do whatever I could to minimise the damage and indeed to remove his connection to the internet.

When I arrived and asked what had happened, he explained that he had been receiving emails from High St. financial institutions stating that his account was locked until he logged in to verify his identity.

I asked him if he had logged in and carried this out, he replied that he didn't even have an account with any of these companies, but had handwritten a letter to each of them explaining that he did not want to be contacted by them in this way again.

It was with some relief that I explained this was simply a scam known as "phishing" and is an unfortunate result of using your email address online.

Briefly, it is inevitable that at some point you will enter your email address on a website, while shopping online, registering for a service, or carrying out some online transaction.

There are many and varied ways that your email address can fall into the wrong hands and I haven't got time to explain them here, but suffice it to say that there are people out there who will pay good money for stolen email addresses. It is then a simple matter of designing an email which looks like an authentic communication from a High St. bank, in the sure and certain knowledge that of the million or so email addresses they send it to, tens of thousands of them will be customers of that bank and even if only 1% fall for the scam and enter their details, that can mean hundreds of bank account details could be compromised.

The message is simple, if you receive an email from your bank, building society, or other institution of which you are a member, DO NOT EVER click a link in an email. Instead if you receive an email from your bank etc. go to your browser and login using your bookmark, or favourite, that way you know you are going to the legitimate website.

If you don't even have an account with the company, either delete the message, or select: "Mark this message as Spam".

I was able to reassure this customer that he had experienced the equivalent of a burglar trying his front door, and, finding it locked, wandering off to find easier pickings elsewhere.

I had a call recently from a customer who asked me to remove him from the internet, as he had been a victim of identity theft.

I was quite alarmed by this and agreed to visit as soon as I could to do whatever I could to minimise the damage and indeed to remove his connection to the internet.

When I arrived and asked what had happened, he explained that he had been receiving emails from High St. financial institutions stating that his account was locked until he logged in to verify his identity.

I asked him if he had logged in and carried this out, he replied that he didn't even have an account with any of these companies, but had handwritten a letter to each of them explaining that he did not want to be contacted by them in this way again.

It was with some relief that I explained this was simply a scam known as "phishing" and is an unfortunate result of using your email address online.

Briefly, it is inevitable that at some point you will enter your email address on a website, while shopping online, registering for a service, or carrying out some online transaction.

There are many and varied ways that your email address can fall into the wrong hands and I haven't got time to explain them here, but suffice it to say that there are people out there who will pay good money for stolen email addresses. It is then a simple matter of designing an email which looks like an authentic communication from a High St. bank, in the sure and certain knowledge that of the million or so email addresses they send it to, tens of thousands of them will be customers of that bank and even if only 1% fall for the scam and enter their details, that can mean hundreds of bank account details could be compromised.

The message is simple, if you receive an email from your bank, building society, or other institution of which you are a member, DO NOT EVER click a link in an email. Instead if you receive an email from your bank etc. go to your browser and login using your bookmark, or favourite, that way you know you are going to the legitimate website.

If you don't even have an account with the company, either delete the message, or select: "Mark this message as Spam".

I was able to reassure this customer that he had experienced the equivalent of a burglar trying his front door, and, finding it locked, wandering off to find easier pickings elsewhere.

The 3 Most Important Things About Computing

Backup, backup and backup... in that order!

The worst part of our job here at Whitstable Computer Repair - by a long stretch - is having to phone up a customer to tell them that their hard drive has failed and all their data has been lost. Their letters, documents, spreadsheets, but usually worse, all their family photos, have gone.

We have experienced this on three occasions since our last Newsletter and it never gets any less heartbreaking.

The simple rule is, make sure you have at least two copies of your important information, whether it be documents or photos. I would recommend three copies, with at least one of them not in your home. This has now become easier because a lot of companies now offer limited free storage online.

It's not difficult to backup, but unless it is totally automatic, it does have to be considered and remembered.

If you have missed our previous messages on this important subject, or you have decided it is time to stop living on the edge (of data loss), please give us a call. Setting up a regular backup doesn't need to be expensive, but when you consider the anguish caused by losing years worth of family memories, maybe a little expense is worth it.