It's Free - But At What Cost?

There's a lot of cool stuff to be found on the Internet. Some of it's free. Some of it's not. Before you throw caution to the wind and assume all the information and freebies you find are treasures at the end of the rainbow. . . WAIT! There are certain precautions you should take. Especially if you are investing hard-earned dollars or downloading questionable software onto your computer.

You can find anything you want on the Internet - from homes and cars to health information and life long love. There's free information, free software, free games and free gifts. But surfer beware! All that is free is NOT good!

Let's start with information. Anybody with an Internet connection and a keyboard can post anything they want to the Internet. And the same way you can find bad people in the offline world, there are also bad people in the online world.

Some of those bad people try to get you to download something for free - and then they install spyware or viruses on your computer.

Some of those bad people send you emails (phishing) to try to get your passwords and personal information.

Some of those bad people will install spyware or viruses on your computer and then steal your personal information and impersonate you - making you a victim of identity theft (one of the fastest growing crimes in America according to the FBI).

And some of those bad people will give you incorrect information - just for kicks. There are, of course, others (not so bad, just not so bright), who give incorrect information because they don't know any better.

Now, I don't want to scare you away from the Internet. There is a wealth of good information and good people on here too. What I am saying is. . . be cautious!