I was just working on my computer when my attention was grabbed by a programme that was being shown on the television, as soon as I heard the introduction mentioning computer fraud I thought that it might be of interest, and boy was I right.

Perhaps like me, you and many thousands of other computer users around the world, upgrade from their old computer to the latest one probably at least once every year or every two years.

The main thought on our minds is buying the new computer and looking forward to how improved our internet and computing life will be when we acquire this new ultra fast and modern unit, but what do you do with your old computer.

Personally I still have my previous computers, I don't know particularly why but I never got around to dumping them and after watching this television programme I certainly am glad that I didn't.

It would appear that in the UK alone over nine million new computers were bought last year and this year the figure is going to increase, meaning that many millions of old computers are discarded and usually end up being dumped at the local rubbish tip.

In fact many are thought to be responsibly dumped at council run tips in specifically designated areas solely intended for the disposal of old computers.

The owners have not used secure deleting software and in many cases haven't even deleted files at all.

So you may wonder what's the problem?

Well it would appear that many thousands of these old computers are then being shipped abroad to third world countries, either because it is cheaper to dispose of them there or because they can be re used.

Unfortunately these old computers still retain all the information stored upon their hard drives from the original owners and these hard drives are being used by unscrupulous people to commit internet fraud.

You may think that when you delete a file on your computer it is totally wiped clean from your hard drive and has gone forever but not so, in fact when you delete a file from your computer it still remains on your hard drive however you computer is told to ignore its existence and so give you the illusion that it has been destroyed.

You can imagine what details may still be available on a hard drive then, including not only all your personal correspondence but also banking details and all your very private financial details including usernames and passwords.

In the hands of these criminals your hard drive could be worth a fortune and may very well lose you a fortune. Remember they could have possession of all your bank account numbers, user names and passwords.

The motto of this article would be to ensure that if you are going to dispose of your old computer you take actions to use special secure deleting software that is designed to totally eradicate the information off your hard drive or failing that remove your hard drive and either keep it or have it totally physically destroyed, that way all your private information will remain private.