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Hosting News – New York – Paltalk, the leading real-time, video-based community with over 4 million active members, will be featuring the second live interactive event in their series entitled, Are We the Crash Test Dummies For The New Internet Age on March 3 at 3pm EST. The event is part of Paltalk’s new TechNow network where new ideas about technology are presented in live, interactive Internet events. During this second program entitled, Your Digital Identity – Manage it or Lose it, two leading tech titans, visionary Melih Abdulhayoglu, CEO of Comodo and noted Internet commentator and CEO of Silicon Alley Insider, Henry Blodget will discuss how the emerging transparency of social networking makes individuals more vulnerable to fraud and ID breaches and what can be done to lower the risks.

The scope of identity theft issues online is enormous and growing everyday as our reliance on social networks grows everyday. Recent FTC reports and security reports suggest that these issues dominate the digital landscape:

• In 2007, every minute of every day another 28 people in the United States became victims of identity theft.

• Fully 1/3 of all consumer complaints reported to the FTC in 2008 were related to Identity theft. This represents by far the single largest complain area.

  – Catalogers, the second largest complaint category represents only 8% of all consumer complaints.

• Data breaches of lost consumer data increased dramatically in 2008 by 47%!

• Fraud perpetrated within online interactions (versus stealing information in the real world) now accounts for a third of all identity theft issues (Javelin Research):

19% while conducting a transaction
11% in online activity
11% in data breach

• Sadly, most ID theft is never reported to police:

5% of victims did not file a police report
27% of victims did file a police report which was accepted by local law enforcement.
8% of victims tried to file a police report and it was not accepted.

As a leading social network, Paltalk is uniquely positioned to take the lead introducing a new paradigm of digital interaction. “Paltalk has been serving the Web community for over 10 years,” said Judy Shapiro, Paltalk’s Senior Vice President of Marketing. “Paltalk is vividly aware of the real and growing risk of identity theft on the Net. We will do all that we can to protect the members of our on-line community and millions of others on other Web 2.0 communities such as Facebook, Twitter and MySpace. We hope to serve as an example to other leading Web 2.0 applications on the Net in providing solutions to prevent this epidemic crime.”

In 1998 the US Congress created a new federal offense of identity theft. “Identity theft cost U.S. businesses and consumers $56.6 billion in 2006,” said Shapiro. “Paltalk will be part of the solution in addressing identify theft through an effective and powerful awareness campaign.”

This live internet debate will take place on March 3rd at 3:00pm EST. To join the room when the event is on, please visit http://TechNow.Paltalk.com and to learn more about the event or submit a question, please go to visit http://TechNow.Paltalk.com/crashdummies

Upcoming show: March 19 at 3 pm (EST)

Transforming the Web into Your Web. This will address how we navigate through an increasingly complex Internet with new powerful tools, such as our social networks, that will create a personalized web experience.

About Melih Abdulhayoglu
As CEO and Chief Security Architect of Comodo, Melih created Comodo in 1998 with a bold vision of making the Trusted Internet a reality for all. Comodo’s innovations and pioneering business model have allowed Comodo to deliver its award winning Firewall absolutely free, while continuing to grow revenue by over 30 percent, year over year. Melih earned Ernst & Young’s Entrepreneur Of The Year® 2008 Award in the Information Technology Software Category for New Jersey and he is a Cyberterrorism expert appearing on Fox Business News.

About Henry Blodget
Henry Blodget, CEO and Editor in Chief of the Silicon Alley, has a long reputation as a thought leader within the technology space. Henry was CEO of Cherry Hill Research, an Internet research and consulting firm. From 1994-2001, he was an investment banker at Prudential Securities and an equity analyst at Oppenheimer & Co. and Merrill Lynch. Henry is a regular contributor to Slate, Newsweek International, The New York Times, Fortune, Forbes, Business 2.0, Euromoney, New York, the Financial Times and a frequent guest on CNBC, CNN, MSNBC and NPR. In 2007, Henry published his first book, The Wall Street Self-Defense Manual: A Consumer’s Guide to Intelligent Investing.

About Paltalk
Paltalk, which is now working with the Federal Trade Commission and the US Department of Justice in fighting identity theft, is the premier provider of software and technology for real-time, rich media, interactive social networking. The Paltalk platform powers the largest collection of video based communities and continues to grow since it was launched in 1998. Paltalk now boasts millions of active members with nearly 100,000 people simultaneously chatting in rooms engaged in lively dialogues, meeting new friends, trading stock tips, singing karaoke, and attending family reunions. The Paltalk community is vibrant due to the high quality of the room environments supported by a range of free moderation tools.

In addition, Paltalk delivers original programming geared to the interests of the community. Paltalk Interactive events have hosted entertainment personalities including William Shatner and radio personalities Opie and Anthony. Paltalk supports both IM pals on AOL, Yahoo, and ICQ and is available as a free download.

For more information, please visit: www.paltalk.com

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