Share your thoughts on identity related topics - chance to win £250! NOW CLOSED

[AnnMumsnet]

The internet has provided us with many wonderful opportunities. We can discover and learn, meet potential partners, we can buy and sell things to other people, turn to peers for advice, book holidays, read our favourite magazines, manage our finances, and so on. Unfortunately the systems and tools we use to make our lives easier are easily misused by people with the wrong intentions. We read headlines of dating scams, online fraud, people creating fake profiles, and children accessing age restricted content.

We can use our phones to make payments from our bank accounts, but not prove who we are. We still have to photocopy and email our passports to prove our identities to get things done like rent a flat, which simply doesn’t make sense. The list goes on and on…

Mumsnet partner, Yoti, have created a secure ID app which helps people prove their identity, online and in person - and are on a mission to fix the identity related issues that aren't right and don’t make sense. If you’d like to read more about how they secure your data and plan to make proving your identity simpler, faster and safer, please visit www.yoti.com.

Yoti would like to hear your views on some identity related topics - have a look at them below - and if your answer is defined by aspects such as past experience, the age of your children or your work then please add that into your post. Of course, there's no right or wrong answers and all views are welcome.

Example Topics:

• Age restricted content is open to anyone online (for example anyone - whatever their age can access all sorts of content with no restrictions)
• Online personas can't be trusted (for example - it's easy to pose as someone older or younger when interacting with other people online)
• Cost of fraud is more than the NHS budget (£144bn more money is lost each year to online fraud in the UK than spent on the NHS)
• We need to show numerous paper documents (e.g. a utility bill and two different types of ID document) just to access a new service

Add your comment and you will be entered into a prize draw where one winner will get a £250 John Lewis voucher

thanks and good luck!
MNHQ

Standard Insight T&Cs apply

Online personal definitely need to be treated with caution- you could be dealing with absolutely anyone despite what they / their profile etc says. I'm very sceptical when it comes to online forums, social media etc. It is not the real world. People can be whoever they like, can spin / twist the truth, make up things, be very selective in what they report etc. I'll definitely be teaching my DC this - think some adults need to be reminded too!!

I need to take this more seriously than I do. I've never taken the time to assess the risks and modify my behaviour online.

social media with kids is very hard to patrol, nearly everyone lies about age etc

i recently applied for a job and the amount of documentation i needed to prove i was uk born and bred was unbelievable

What concerns me is that companies ask a lot from us..ID, information, secure passwords and so on, yet there seems to be almost weekly hacks and leaks of this secure information. But there is seemingly no consequences for the companies who don't keep our data safe. How can you expect individuals to take ID security seriously when businesses don't?

I used to work in the Fraud team for a financial institution and it was a really eye opener as to what goes on. As such I am uber cautious with releasing any of my details, probably to the point of paranoia!

When it gets to September or October and I see posts on here by people worrying how they are going to give their children a decent Christmas because they're short of money I'm afraid to say I scroll past.
As someone who is usually fairly street-wise it shocked me, some years ago now, just how easily I was taken in by an internet troll. This person had built up a complete online personality and posted over a number of years, before "sadly passing away". They hadn't died at all but people had started to become suspicious about things not quite adding up, and yes money was involved. The idea of children being allowed free-reign on the internet is just horrifying, literally anyone can make up an identity.

To try and protect my own identity online I have several different email addresses, and I only post things that I would be happy to own under my real name. Now and again I might change details about my life (age, number of children etc) just to throw people off the scent

Would using a VPN provide better online security?

Identity fraud is everywhere... I get so many of these emails it is a joke. Online persona's are easy to fake so I ensured ED is up to speed and I gave her all my experience and knowledge. Whilst she was younger she always had access to the web but it was in the same room, we could check when we wanted, she would tell us if anything was strange so we were confident with her. Youngest daughter is still a toddler so we will do the same with her when a older! I wouldn't recommend people with little tech knowledge or experience to be online without learning these things!

I am afraid I trust nobody online. If I get an email from the bank I do not open it and ring the bank in person. I feel awful not trusting anybody but unfortunately past experience has made me like this.
Providing ID is becoming more of a problem as we do not have paper copies of bills.

It's really difficult, my best advice is use passwords that nobody could easily guess like NuJKl98?YYtbW65

I am very careful online and never give out personal information - someone will always find a way in eventually even through and app

I am so wary of identity fraud, and the use of social media leaves some people wide open to being a victim. Public sector fraud and the misuse of public money is one of my biggest concerns, in particular those senior officers who are in charge of procurement, my OH used to work for the NHS and saw first hand the amount of waste, buying with suppliers at inflated prices from one supplier with little market testing, or transparency of how they come to a decision on how to buy. It also makes my blood pressure rise when I collect a prescription and I seem to be the only one ever to pay, with the amount of benefit fraud and exaggerated disabilities (I know it is the few who spoil it for the many) but there should be more independent checks on those on long term ESA and PIP/DLA. Sorry if I have touched a nerve for any genuine cases, but when you see for example the lady doing the limbo and disco dancing on a cruise liner (at our expense) when she stated she was housebound and cannot walk without help - makes by blood boil #rantover

These companies that ask for your details and you trust them enough not to share them...then the ppi/accident phone calls start happening. More needs to be done to protect our personal information to be sold on to scammers and nuisance callers.

People share so much private information online including here! I don't think we fully understand how this is being mined, used, sold or building a web of information about us.

• Age restricted content is open to anyone online (for example anyone - whatever their age can access all sorts of content with no restrictions)

I do not agree with this whatsoever - I have 3 children aged 5, 4 and 22 months and the eldest can access the YouTube apps on their iPads and always have done. However, one day a few years back I caught my son watching something that had violence, blood and swearing in it which was definitely not appropriate for his age. I deleted the YouTube apps and replaced them with the YouTube kids apps where content is restricted.

The internet is such a vast place where if no restrictions were imposed by parents or websites/apps, children could easily find content that is inappropriate and not know that it is inappropriate because of their age.

Fake internet personas are rife and it can be so easy to be taken in when you are the trusting, caring type. Everything has to be taken with a pinch of salt. It's not the real world.

Cost of online fraud is scary. It seems everyone knows someone who has fallen victim to identity theft or scams. I have experienced fraud by someone pretending to offer a high interest rate savings account, he masqueraded as 'MBNA Bank' and walked away and spent tens of thousands of pounds of innocent people's money including my own, which will never be paid back. The punishment is too lenient when he (and many other fraudsters) get to live the high life on other people's money only to do a bit of community service at the end of it all

I was a victim of identity fraud, someone called me claiming to be from O2 and asked me to read out a code they were sending me via text as there was a problem with the network. They did a SIM swap with my phone number, accessed my bank account set up an overdraft and emptied the account.
I am now very wary of any details I share with anyone now.

I think we all need to be more cautious with the amount of personal information we give out online. It's very easy to get caught out by bogus websites.

On the internet, as it is straight forward to pretend to be someone you are not, or pretend to have skills/experience that you do not, you have to be very cautious. This is something that I pass on to my children.
Online personas cannot be trusted.

I shred everything, always check web pages before I put any details also change my password frequently

Online personas can't be trusted (for example - it's easy to pose as someone older or younger when interacting with other people online).

It is important to realise that people who wish to do us harm will create an attractive online persona to lure us in. It is essential to take a step back and ask yourself what you know - as definite fact - about who you are engaging with?

I think the government need to really take more notice of fraud that is going on and put in some measures to protect. The costs that the country are faced with over fraud are huge!