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Dutch 'most naive' about internet security

Wednesday 03 June 2009

The Dutch are by far the most naive about internet security in a survey of seven countries for online payment company PayPal.

Just 23% of the Dutch have concerns about having their identity stolen, compared with 90% of Americans.

Only 28% know what phishing is - a process of luring internet users to a fake site to obtain information and 44% have included all sorts of personal data on social networking sites. Of those, 75% have not closed that information off to the world at large.

'It really shocks me that the Dutch are so lax about the dangers associated with the internet,' PayPal Benelux marketing director Robbert de Haan said.

The survey looked at the attitudes of people in Germany, France, Spain, the US, Britain, Canada and the Netherlands.

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Readers' comments

My concern is with PayPal. They lost me a lot of money without doing proper checks. Even when I presented them with evidence they were being duped, they could not see it.(or refused to) In the end I had to pay.

By Kevin | June 3, 2009 11:06 AM

I was concerned to read that one of the worst sites for dodgy adverts (links to sites with malware) is Buienradar.nl. This must be one of the top 20 most visited websites in Holland. Just removed it from my Bookmarks.

By simplastic | June 3, 2009 3:08 PM

I cant help but wonder, what would it happen if we would not be so naive, would that mean that we would not purchase anything via the internet? Shall we all give up to internet just because is not entirely safe?

By Laly | June 3, 2009 3:25 PM

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