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On Tue, Feb 15, 2011 at 9:33 PM, Simon Waters wrote: > I presume more people are scammed than admit it, since it is presumably > profitable. The fact that it continues to happen does not necessarily mean it is profitable. A lot of this kind of stuff happens through affiliate schemes, so it's really just a matter of one bad guy convincing the other that this money-stealing-idea is going to work. (My guess is that most online crime is profitable, but stuff like viagra-spam may well have stopped being profitable some time ago.) There are few reliable figures on financial losses through online banking-theft. Some people may simply not admit it; more likely, the financial organisations involved play it down, for fear of reputation damage. (Not so much their reputation as a company but the reputation of their online system; it would cost them lots of money if people would revert to using local branches again.) The only reliable figure I've seen was from the Dutch association of banks, which showed that the average Dutch person lost about half a euro a year because of online fraud. (Though the point they were making was that the figure had increased by a few hundred per cent in a year's time.) More importantly, if you do lose money through someone breaking into your online banking system, and you've not been outright stupid, you're very likely to get your money back. And while this is frustrating and embarassing, I think you're right to point out that sites like Facebook, GMail and Paypal should worry us more. Their login systems are so much less secure and they don't have high street branches you can go to with your passport to get your account back. (Thankfully, GMail is now offering 2-factor authorisation, which should make it pretty safe. It's not unbreakable, but assuming people aren't after _your_ account in particular, it will help a great deal that other accounts are a lot easier to break into.) So re: the original question, using a live CD every time you use online banking won't hurt and it's something to boast about on birthday parties, but if you don't take extra measures before logging into the aforementioned sites, it won't make you a lot more secure. Martijn. -- The Mailing List for the Devon & Cornwall LUG http://mailman.dclug.org.uk/listinfo/list FAQ: http://www.dcglug.org.uk/listfaq