Chiropodists, Podiatrists and foot health practitioners must all be aware of cyber-crime, which is all too often being imposed on both our personal and business lives.

To illustrate this, on one rare morning off, I caught sight of a TV programme called 'Rip off Britain' (1) that discussed the issue of identity theft, a fast growing problem that affects more than 100,000 fraud crimes in Britain each year. The situation seems to increasingly target young people and suggests that four out of five fraudsters are taking advantage of under 21 year olds online. While it is thought that a third of identity theft victims are now aged under 40, it is equally worrying that two thirds of the population over 40 years old are more likely to be affected by crime relating to fraud.

So why is this important to health professionals?

Well, there is the increasing likelihood of practitioners and their patients being affected by this type of crime, which could result in lost revenue and savings from their own and/or their patient's bank accounts. (2,3)

Many of us have experienced or know of someone that has been involved in some form of cybercrime. Once the identity thieves get their hands on any personal details they can go on a spending spree, take out loans and mortgages, as well as buying items using the victim's name to gradually empty their bank accounts, which sadly was depicted in the programme. 23 In 'Rip Off Britain' (1) a case study showed a retired couple who had the majority of their savings removed from their bank account and the hackers in this instance took their identity. This lead to the couple having to fight for months to try and get their rights and control back of their bank account. The source of this fraud along with the help of the TV presenter Angela Rippon found that hackers were able to obtain information while using the computer and could find access to bank cards or any bills or bank statements that were visible around the computer, while they were online shopping or paying bills. Personal and any other details were being viewed using the camera portal on their computer. (4)

I had heard...