October 1, 2008

A Charlottesville group wants you to consider who may be watching you when you're surfing the web. The initiative "Who's Watching Charlottesville" tries to keep folks from becoming victims of online fraud.

October is Cyber Awareness month, and for the third year in a row, schools and businesses in the area talked about how you can protect yourself from giving out personal information online.

The online initiative "Who's Watching Charlottesville" says two Albemarle County residents were scammed into giving money to a terrorist organization a couple years ago.

Scams like that prompted the online initiative to teach how to prevent identity theft by shopping online safely without giving out social security numbers and avoiding shopping on unsecure wireless networks.

"You can think before you click," suggests Marty Peterman of the "Who's Watching" initiative. "If you see deals that may be too good, don't go there. If you're tempted to reveal your personal information--like your social security number, your bank account number--it's a scam, don't do it. Your financial institutions won't contact you via email to reveal that sort of information."

Charlottesville Vice Mayor Julian Taliaferro attended Wednesday's forum, as well as local law enforcement officers who talked about efforts to protect children from online predators.

Marty Peterman also says young people especially should be careful about posting e-mail addresses and photos on social networking sites like myspace and facebook.

The group will speak at Sutherland Middle School Wednesday at 7:00 pm to talk to parents and kids about online safety.

Visit Who's Watching Charlottesville for a complete list of their October schedule.