Be wary of hard drive hijackers, credit card customers warned
Credit card customers are among the consumers who have been advised to be wary of criminals looking to get hold of their old computers to access personal information on them.
Be wary of hard drive hijackers, credit card customers warned”
Which? Computing explains unscrupulous individuals can trawl tips and internet auction sites for PCs and then use specialist software to retrieve data that has been deleted.
"This information could be used to make a fraudulent credit card application, order a new phone, or even apply for a copy of a birth certificate," the consumer watchdog magazine explains.
It states it bought eight second-hand hard drives from eBay and found they still contained information which could be classed as confidential.
Then, using software downloaded from the internet, it was able to recover 22,000 "deleted" files, including spreadsheets, images and music files.
In recent days, Michael Lynch, fraud expert at life assistance company CPP, said parents should be aware of their children's online habits as they could well be using their mothers' and fathers' details to make purchases, placing them at risk of fraud.
Written by David Jones
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