2764 Pleasant Rd, #10255
Fort Mill, South Carolina 29708
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2764 Pleasant Rd, #10255 Fort Mill, South Carolina 29708
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Email Smarter - How to reduce junk mail and virus infection January 2006 - Greg Smith Many of these tips may be obvious, but hopefully there will be something new for you to consider. FORWARDING "JOKES", "CHAIN MAIL", ETC.: Some would suggest that you not do this at all but if you can't resist, then you should ALWAYS send by addressing them using a blind copy (BCC) instead of "To:" or "cc:". This serves multiple purposes:
Put simply, sending messages to multiple people
in the form of a BCC message, protects everyone and slows the spread of
viruses and malicious code. ALL email programs support this feature (but it
is sometimes hidden) and if you don't know how to use it, try looking it up
in the "help" menu for the program.
FREE ELECTRONIC GREETING CARDS AND SIMILAR "SERVICES"
Only send a "free" electronic greeting card or such to your
enemies, never your friends. OK, seriously, there are
a few legitimate "safe" places to do this, but the vast majority are
nothing more than a LEGAL way for SPAMMERS to harvest
valid email addresses. In other words, the free greeting cards are
free to you, but the price paid is by the person who UNKNOWINGLY was
just put on multiple spam lists because you gave their email address
to someone who harvests and sells them to spam houses. Even some
sites that appear safe today (if you read and believe their privacy
policy), can be unsafe tomorrow because they normally have the
standard legal language that they can change their terms and
policies at any time without notification to you. My current
personal email address was completely spam-free until 2 days after
my loving sister sent me an electronic birthday card.
SEND LINKS INSTEAD OF INPUTTING SOMEONE'S EMAIL ADDRESS:
Many sites allow you to enter a friend's email address to send them
information or a copy of an article, etc. It is much safer and more
polite to send them a link to the article or site than inputting their
email address without their prior knowledge. Again, this is to avoid
giving out someone else's email address and potentially getting them
harvested and added to junk mail lists.
I utilize the Comporium junk mail filter (set at its lowest setting) to stop
the most obvious junk mail and viruses. I am able to safely review these at
my leisure to ensure that something important wasn't stopped. This is a
free service offered by Comporium and most other Internet providers offer
them as well. A junk mail filter is also included in Microsoft Outlook if
you use that program. It is not included in the scaled down Outlook
Express.
ONE WAY TO AVOID CONSTANTLY CHANGING
YOUR EMAIL ADDRESS BECAUSE OF SPAM:
Internet Service Providers (ISPs) normally allow
you to have several email addresses at no additional charge. Sites like
www.hotmail.com also provide totally
free email addresses. I use these whenever I register on a website and an
email address is required. Invariably, these addresses will start getting
slammed by spam and I simply close or abandon my "secondary" email account
and start a new one. I try to only give my "real" personal email address to
"trusted" contacts. This minimizes, but does not eliminate spam. There are
certainly other methods and variations on the theme, but I thought I would
pass on one idea for you to think about.
"MY COMPUTER CAN'T GET INFECTED IF I
DON'T ACTUALLY OPEN THE SUSPICIOUS EMAIL MESSAGE"
Well, this USED to be true... but unfortunately,
if you use Outlook or Outlook Express, your computer CAN
get infected by a virus even if you don't "open" the infected message.
This can happen if you are in "preview" mode. Java code can get executed
and do bad things without you actually opening up the message. If you use
either of these Outlook email programs, you can turn off preview mode to
avoid this. Also, security patches are available from Microsoft that
update your settings to not execute or download potentially malicious code
when in preview mode. These updates are part of "Windows auto update"
if you have Windows and use that feature.
"PHISHING" AND "TOO GOOD TO BE TRUE" EMAILS Phishing is a method by which scam artists posing as a legitimate company or service attempt to have you give them personal or financial information. This is most commonly done through email, but can also be done by phone. Some even go so far as to set up fake websites that LOOK like the real thing (ebay, your bank, etc.) and will have similar website addresses to the genuine sites. This is so they can harvest passwords or other confidential information. For more information and actions that you should take when this occurs, check out this government website: http://www.ftc.gov/bcp/conline/pubs/alerts/phishingalrt.htm EMAILS OF "FACTS", "TRUE STORIES" AND "WARNINGS" Everyone has received emails warning them of new viruses or safety issues, such as microwaved water exploding or the guy who got his organs harvested in a hotel room when out on a blind date. Also, you may have received emails quoting a celeb or politician. Are they true? Is it real? Did it happen? Did they really say that? You may be surprised at what is real and what isn't. HINT: Most of this stuff is either blatantly false or an altered story.
Don't help perpetuate myths, urban legends, and misinformation! The best course of action is to delete the message and NOT forward it! If you are really curious, check out the authenticity or story behind specific hoaxes and chain letters at one of these websites: http://www.symantec.com/avcenter/hoax.html
Happy emailing! |
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Copyright © 2006-2020
Ashford on the Water Homeowners Association, Inc.
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