Wendy Martin is an ordinary university student who used to love surfing the Internet and chatting with friends online. She often spent much of her free time talking with her family and making new friends online. Then something ahappened. It completely changed Wendy's feelings about the Internet.

    One of Wendy's favorite things to do online was to visit the chat rooms on music websites. Everyone there loved chatting about recent concerts and what the famous swere going to do next. It was here that Wendy first met Anne. The two women liked each other immediately. Soon they exchanged e mail addresses and were communicating online every day.

    Wendy etalking to her new friend. They both liked the same music, the same clothes and the same films, but they also had the same worries about studying and the future. Anne had e -mailed her a picture of herself- she even looked sto Wendy. So, when Anne asked Wendy for her address and phone number, Wendy thought her new friend was a person she could trust.

    It was only when Wendy got a letter from the bank that she realized something was wrong. Anne was not who she said she was. She was not a university student, she was not young and she was not even a woman. "Anne" was really a 45-year-old man called Tim. He pto like the same things as Wendy. He had used Wendy s personal information to spend all the money in her bank account.

    This situation is actually quite common, and affects thousands of people every year. Fortunately for Wendy, Tim was finally caught by the police, so Wendy got most of her money back. Many people, h, have not been so lucky.

    Everyone can learn from the mistakes that Wendy made. Ngive out personal information while chatting online, and always make sure your user name is different from your real name. Nobody wants to make the same mistake as Wendy.