A mystery to many, an essential tool for others, the Internet is now very much part of our lives but how much do we know about it.

In the second of a three-part series, Rachel Clutterbuck, the business manager at Secure e-Business, QinetiQ (formerly DERA) in Malvern, looks at issues of safety and cybercrime.

Next week, an Internet guide for parents

The other day a friend of mine was telling me that his mother had started to explore the Internet from his computer. Having pointed her in the direction of a chat room, he left her to it.

Passing by a little while later, his mother told him that she was chatting to "a really nice woman in America". My friend's response was "How do you know it's a woman?". Of course, she had no way of really knowing. She had taken the information supplied to her at face value.

The anonymity afforded by the Internet is not necessarily something to be feared, as long as users recognise that this anonymity can be, and is, occasionally used for the perpetration of disruptive, malicious and criminal acts.

Most Internet users will be familiar with unsolicited bulk email or spam, as it is commonly known. Spam is an extremely questionable marketing tool that most reputable businesses do not employ due to the fact that nobody wants to receive unsolicited junk mail. It is annoying and can be offensive. Notwithstanding this, when a spammer pumps half a million copies of a message through the Internet it causes a serious drain on network resources, using up bandwidth and resulting in traffic congestion.

The ability to 'anonymise' on the Internet makes it easy for spammers to develop strategies to avoid mail blocking or filtering techniques, and as such, it is not an easy matter to stop spam. The ISP (Internet Service Provider) Association recommends contacting your ISP to report such abuse and provides details of other practical steps that can be taken to minimise it. See www.ispa.org.uk for further information.

Much more concerning and potentially damaging is the threat of Internet fraud. In most countries fraud is illegal - no matter how it has been executed. Internet Fraud Watch reports that during 2000 the overall cost to US consumers of Internet fraud reached almost $3.5 million.

Types of Internet fraud range from phony shop sites established to trick consumers into paying for goods or services they will never receive, to the growing trend in identity fraud. Identity fraud is where someone uses key pieces of an individual's identifying information in order to impersonate him or her. A common purpose of this is to acquire goods or services in someone else's name through the use of credit or debit card numbers. Whilst researching this article, I found several web sites offering means of identification that could enable criminals to establish fraudulent credit accounts in any name.

There are many types of 'cybercrime' and Internet threat that it has just not been possible to describe here, however there are many Internet sites offering 'safe surfing' advice and information to users - the ISPA site being just one.

Most importantly, be as cautious with your personal information when on-line as you would in the real world. Think whether the information source is credible and this will go a long way to ensuring many carefree hours of surfing.