E-Mail Tips

SPAM MAIL - Your Internet Service Provider (aol, sbcglobal, comcast, juno, hotmail, etc.) may provide spam filtering automaticaly in the case of aol, or on demand in the case of comcast. One way to guarantee that spam does not get downloaded into your computer is to look at your e-mail messages on the server before you tell your e-mail program (Outlook, Outlook Express, etc.) to fetch your e-mails. To do this you need to open up the browser (Internet Explorer, Firefox, Safari, etc.) and go to your Service Provider's site. For example, comcast is www.comcast.net juno is www.juno.com sbcglobal is www.sbcglobal.net hotmail is www.hotmail.com These home pages have a place for you to log in to your e-mail account with the same User ID and password that you use with your e-mail program. You should then be able to see all the e-mails that are on the server that have not yet been sent down to your computer. You can look at each one of them, if you want, and decide to delete, skip or report as spam. After you review them on the server, only the ones you did not delete or report as spam will be downloaded when you open up your e-mail program. This technique is also useful when you are traveling without your computer. You can use any computer with Internet connection to look at your e-mail and wait to download to your computer when you get home.

PHISHING - This is a technique used by unscrupulous groups to try to obtain confidential information from you that they can use to access your bank account, charge items to you or access your computer records. You receive an e-mail from what seems like a outfit you do business with - your bank, paypal, e-bay, comcast, aol, microsoft, etc. They usually ask you to verify something - your account number, social security number, user ID, password - in reply and may give you the reason that something urgent needs to be resolved. No legitimate business does it this way. All such requests should be reported. The way to report it is to forward the e-mail requesting the information to spam@uce.gov If you believe that you have already been phished, you need to contact www.ftc.gov to file your complaint then visit the FTC Identity Theft Web Site at www.consumer.gov/idtheftwww.consumer.gov/idtheft to learn how to minimize your risk of damage. You can also visit www.ftc.gov/spam to learn other ways to avoid scams and spam.