Paltalk, the leading real-time, video-based community with over 4 million active members, will be featuring the second live interactive event in their series entitled, Are We the Crash Test Dummies For The New Internet Age on March 3 at 3pm EST. The event is part of Paltalk’s new TechNow network where new ideas about technology are presented in live, interactive Internet events. During this second program entitled, Your Digital Identity — Manage it or Lose it, two leading tech titans, visionary Melih Abdulhayoglu, CEO of Comodo and noted Internet commentator and CEO of Silicon Alley Insider, Henry Blodget will discuss how the emerging transparency of social networking makes individuals more vulnerable to fraud and ID breaches and what can be done to lower the risks.
The scope of identity theft issues online is enormous and growing everyday as our reliance on social networks grows everyday. Recent FTC reports and security reports suggest that these issues dominate the digital landscape:
- In 2007, every minute of every day another 28 people in the United States became victims of identity theft.
- Fully 1/3 of all consumer complaints reported to the FTC in 2008 were related to Identity theft. This represents by far the single largest complain area.
- Catalogers, the second largest complaint category represents only 8% of all consumer complaints.
- Data breaches of lost consumer data increased dramatically in 2008 by 47%!
- Fraud perpetrated within online interactions (versus stealing information in the real world) now accounts for a third of all identity theft issues (Javelin Research):
- 19% while conducting a transaction
- 11% in online activity
- 11% in data breach
- Sadly, most ID theft is never reported to police:
- 65% of victims did not file a police report
- 27% of victims did file a police report which was accepted by local law enforcement.
- 8% of victims tried to file a police report and it was not accepted.
As a leading social network, Paltalk is uniquely positioned to take the lead introducing a new paradigm of digital interaction. “Paltalk has been serving the Web community for over 10 years,” said Judy Shapiro, Paltalk’s Senior Vice President of Marketing. “Paltalk is vividly aware of the real and growing risk of identity theft on the Net. We will do all that we can to protect the members of our on-line community and millions of others on other Web 2.0 communities such as Facebook, Twitter and MySpace. We hope to serve as an example to other leading Web 2.0 applications on the Net in providing solutions to prevent this epidemic crime.”
In 1998 the US Congress created a new federal offense of identity theft. “Identity theft cost U.S. businesses and consumers $56.6 billion in 2006,” said Shapiro. “Paltalk will be part of the solution in addressing identify theft through an effective and powerful awareness campaign.”
Event Details:
This live internet debate will take place on March 3rd at 3:00pm EST. To join the room when the event is on, please visit http://TechNow.Paltalk.com and to learn more about the event or submit a question, please go to visit http://TechNow.Paltalk.com/crashdummies
Upcoming show: March 19 at 3 pm (EST)
Transforming the Web into Your Web. This will address how we navigate through an increasingly complex Internet with new powerful tools, such as our social networks, that will create a personalized web experience.
