Would You Give Your Telephone Number to a Complete Stranger?

This is a very interesting idea and one which might touch a nerve with you.  Can a number of actors, armed only with information gleaned from the internet, convince five complete strangers that they are good friends?

The answer as you will see from the video above is a yes and shows that if you can convince five people (to whom you are or at least should be completely unfamiliar) that you know each other well, that the next step could quite easily be stealing their identities from them.

The People’s ID Bot Project from Experian set out to raise awareness online about just how our relaxed approach to the information that we post on the internet might make us more susceptible than we might think to identity fraud.

Could it be that a particular British tendency to be civil to strangers makes them a little more vulnerable to being conned? Perhaps – some Brits are so polite that they might even let people get away with something like this, just to maintain their politeness.

If you want to see how you are at risk of identity fraud, pop over to Experian's Identity Project and join others fighting identity fraud.

You can also get lots of tips about how to better manage your personal information online by going to the The People’s ID Bot Project  Facebook page. There are some great tips there such as 5 things you should do to keep safe online (which has a great accompanying infographic), but probably don’t.  It also keeps you bang up to date with the latest malware threats and security breaches at famous websites.

The folks at the The People’s ID Bot Project envisage a future where everyone in Britain will have their own ID bot, a super-smart way of protecting their identities and staying safe online which will alert them at once if they are at risk of fraud.  I for one can’t wait for that day to come – let us know what you think about these issues.