BERWICK internet users are running a secret network of e-mail accounts to manage hectic lifestyles, with the average in possession of three separate identities on the web, according to a new report out from Post Office® Telecoms.
Resulting from the online revolution, an astonishing 79 per cent of internet users in the Berwick-upon-Tweed area now own multiple email accounts and 19 per cent have more than five.
Nationally, 57 per cent of the UK's internet users said they
log onto more than one account to keep personal and professional lives separate, and 27 per cent admitted to sneakily signing up to other accounts to keep secrets from their partners and talk to lovers.
According to the research, men are more than twice as likely as women to keep online secrets and conduct affairs.
The Post Office's® head of telephony Stewart Fox-Mills, said: "People are making the most of the net and living out secret lives in cyber space.
"However, it's not just the devious amongst us who are making the most of multiple online identities. Having more than one e-mail address can be useful in the battle against online fraud and spam. It is also a good way to keep personal and professional lives separate."
The report reveals the covert dealings of UK residents, with the most clandestine living in the North East, where 16 per cent of people have five or more email addresses and online identities, and the most clear-cut in the Midlands and Wales with only 11 per cent having with five or more.
Of the 2,123 people questioned, those who held the most email addresses hailed from Yorkshire and Humber, the East of England and the South East and Northern Ireland.
The report also found that 47 per cent of internet users have between one and five social networking identities on sites including Facebook, Myspace and Bebo, as well as on internet dating sites.
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