London, Mar 15 (ANI): World Wide Web creator Sir Tim Berners-Lee has opened up about an experience when he fell victim to online fraudsters while trying to buy a gift over the Internet.
Sir Tim said that he bought a Christmas present from an online shop but it was only when the present didn’t arrive that he realised he had been conned.
“The worst thing that has happened to me was when I tried to buy a Christmas present from a company that looked like a bona fide company on the Internet and then actually they were a completely fake company. I think I am yet to get the money back, but it wasn’t a lot,” the Telegraph quoted him, as saying.
“The moment I called the 0800 number listed on the website, there was a very polite message saying this number is available if you would like to use it, so a little bit of due diligence on my part would have revealed it wasn’t what it was set up to be,” he added.
Sir Tim, who dreamt up the web 20 years ago, called on the authorities to put as much effort into fighting cyber crime as they do into conventional crime.
He also said new steps were needed to protect Internet users from malicious software that circulates over the Internet.
Speaking ahead of the Web Science 09 event, he was optimistic about the web’s future. However, he also expressed his concerns about security.
Sir Tim said he felt that online crime needed to be enforced as rigorously as crime in the real world, within international agreements to help prevent Internet criminals escaping prosecution by hiding in countries outside the jurisdiction of the law where their victims live. (ANI)