Free money!

A list of email addresses with corresponding passwords has been posted on the blogging website Neowin.

The list is part of a phishing scheme, an internet-based system which leads victims to copy-cat sites in order to obtain their passwords for internet bank-accounts and email accounts. As well as the obvious danger in an internet hacker accessing your bank account remotely there are other more wide-spread threats which aren't as easily traceable.

Many of the email addresses published on the blog site are old, inactive web mail accounts, meaning that the owner wouldn't necessarily notice anything was wrong or even be aware of the forced password change Google and Hotmail are enforcing onto the affected accounts. This means that the hackers will have access to the email account's settings and preferences as well as all the information given by the original user when he or she signed up. A person who has not made a career on identity theft, hacking and cracking probably couldn't do much with a person's full name, address and phone number, but the people who created the phishing sites will be able to sell those sensitive details on to other internet criminals who can potentially make thousands out of them.

The process of creating an identity is slow and drawn-out, but with the victim totally unaware that anyone has their details the identity theft would be in no rush. Signing up for library cards, video rental cards, buying bus-passes and signing up for loyalty cards are included in the number of ways one could obtain photo ID for the newly created identity. Once one has accumulated enough evidence to show that this identity really is you, then a cheque cashing 'why wait till payday?' sort of shop can be hit with blank cheques made out to the new identity. Loans can be taken out, pay as you go phones bought and registered to the identity and receipts written out in the new name.

The hazards of cruising the internal network are well and truly out there-you have been warned.

But how can you protect yourself from these dangers? Fill in your name, email-address, home address, land line and mobile telephone number here to be receive updates on the websites which have been compromised by hackers.