Rarest Words

Identity Theft is one of the most serious problems facing
Internet users. Identity Theft is exactly as the name states
– someone steals your Identity and commits fraud in your name.
It can result in untold financial and legal problems that may
literally ruin your peace of mind and/or your life. Someone
gaining control of your most personal details can reck havoc
and result in dire consequences for you and your family.

You must do everything in your power to prevent Identity Theft.
Actually, if you follow some simple ‘common sense’ procedures –you
can reduce your risk significantly. Follow these simple steps and you
may prevent yourself from becoming a victim of Identity Theft.

Please keep in mind, any computer connected to the Internet
can be hacked! The only way to be 100% safe from Identity Theft
is to not use a computer or the Internet. Even then, many banking
institutions and government agencies may have your vital information
in their hands and possibly online — so no one is really safe!

Despite this grime prospect, there are many things you can personally
do to protect yourself from Identity Theft. Stop would-be thieves in their
tracks and make it really hard for anyone to misuse your well earned good
name and reputation.

Try these relatively simple steps:

1. If you do a lot of surfing on the web — set your own security standards!

Most browsers will let you set the security level of your connections. If
you’re using Internet Explorer, click on Tools in the task bar, go to Internet
Options and set your level of security. Try to set this to as high a standard
as you can.

2. Place a firewall on your computer or network. A firewall is a system or
gateway that prevents unauthorized access to your computer or private network.
It is usually the first line of defense in protecting your private information
or data. A good firewall will help protect you from malicious attacks of spyware,
adware, malware, worms, trojans, and hackers. There is no reason not to have a
firewall in place, you can download a free firewall from www.zonealarm.com for
personal use.

3. Get a good anti-virus software program that will help protect your computer
against spyware, adware, malware and so on. Purchasing such a program that is
updated regularly will save you money in the long run and will add an extra layer
of protection for your PC.

4. Don’t store your vital information (credit card numbers, family information,
passwords, etc.) on your personal computer, instead store it on CDs or floppy
disks or on a computer that is not connected to the Internet.

5. If you use passwords, make sure they are hard-to-guess passwords. You
should have passwords that are at least eight characters long — consisting of
a mixture of numbers, upper case and lower case letters. Many security
experts suggest changing your passwords regularly.

6. Never open emails from people you don’t know. Especially, don’t open
any attachments until they are properly scanned for viruses and spyware.

7. Be aware of phishing — this is where you get an official looking (though fake) email
from companies that you may be doing business with — never use a link in
these emails to provide personal information. Always open a new browser
window and type in your ‘own’ links you have for these companies or sites.
Most secure connections will start with “https://”

8. Regularly check your operating system and download any updates that may
contain security patches and fixes for your PC.

9. Use an encryption service if you can. This will help in protecting
your vital data from prying eyes.

10. Always shut down your computer when its not in use — especially if you
have a cable Internet connection. And make sure you know who is using your computer.
Keep track of family members or friends who have access to your computer.

No doubt there are many more ways to protect yourself against Identity
Theft but following and implementing the above steps will give you added
protection and peace of mind. In the same light, don’t let your guard down
– always be aware of your surfing habits and the information or programs
on your computer. Keep a close eye on your PC; any slow down or unorthodox
operations should be checked out immediately. Scan your machine regularly,
check out any unauthorized attempts to access your computer and keep your
machine safe.

Believe it or not, a little common sense will go a long way in stopping
Identity Theft and keeping your good name safe!

To learn more about Spyware and Adware Click Here: Spyware
Removal Guide

Copyright © 2005 Titus Hoskins of http://www.bizwaremagic.com

This article may be freely distributed if this resource box stays
attached.

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Are you getting too much spam? We all are, but if you’re a webmaster the word spam takes on a whole new meaning.

It’s not uncommon for the luckiest of email users to receive a dozen or so spam messages each day, while those of us who aren’t so fortunate receive hundreds.

The casual home user tends to be more fortunate, so this article is devoted to those of us with one or more website because webmasters are getting hit by spam … and hit hard.

The reason … a website doesn’t do you much good if you don’t give potential customers a way to contact you, and that normally means posting an email address on your website, where it is vulnerable to email address harvesting tools used by spammers. Domain registration records are also a common source used by spammers.

In order to conduct business online you now need to sift through the endless barrage of offers for herbal viagra, pornography, pyramid schemes, and so on.

With such a large volume of spam to contend with, it’s likely you’ve lost sales due to missing important emails that simply floated away in this sea of spam. And there’s no way to really calculate the cost of that lost business. If you’ve missed email then how can you ever know how much business you’ve lost?

If you want to solve the problem, you need to be proactive because the sad reality is that if you do nothing, it will only get worse until finally it reaches the point where your email account has become totally and completely unmanageable. Fortunately there are a few options available to you.

Securing Your Domain Registration Against Spammers

First let’s address the whois database, which is a publicly accessible database in which your domain registration record is listed … and that includes your email address. It’s not uncommon now for people to be spammed at a brand new email address within hours of registering a new domain.

Go Daddy http://www.godaddy.com is a domain registrar that now offers private domain registrations. At the time of writing this article, they are the only registrar who currently offers this service. Hopefully in time, other registrars will pick up on this idea and offer the service too.

With a private domain registration, which costs only a few dollars more than a regular registration, your contact information including your email address will not be publicly accessible in the whois database.

That’s guaranteed to cut down on spam quite significantly as this very important source of addresses that spammers use, will no longer provide your address to them.

If you don’t wish to obtain a private domain registration, then there is another option that will be equally effective. Set up a new email address that you use only for the purpose of providing registration information for your domain name. You can easily scan email sent to that address for messages from your registrar, and delete the rest without having to read it.

Securing Your Website Against Spammers

The other major source, and by far the biggest source of email addresses for spammers is of course the mailto links on your own website. Email address harvesting or extraction software as it’s known is cheap, easy to use, and readily available … and it’s very effective. That means there are a lot of spammers out there with easy access to your email address.

Chances are hundreds or even thousands of spammers using such software have already harvested your address. And what can you do about this? You need to provide a way for your customers to reach you by email, or you’ll lose business. There are steps you can take to prevent your email address from being harvested and used by spammers though, while still providing legitimate visitors to your site with a way to email you.

One solution is to make all the mailto links on your site point to a form instead, which will still provide a means for people to send you email. Provided you use a CGI script that doesn’t require the address to be embedded within the form itself, you can shield your address from email address extractors.

If you don’t want to require people to fill out a form to email you from your website, then you can get a little more creative. It is possible to put a mailto link on your site that when clicked will still launch the sender’s email program, and start a new message with your address in the To field … but without having to embed your email address in the mailto link where spam software can snatch it. Click below to see an example of how it works.

http://thewebhostcompany.com/cgi-local/email.cgi

It looks like a normal URL, and there’s clearly no email address anywhere in the link, but when clicked, instead of loading a web page in your browser as you may have expected, your email program opens up.

How’s that possible you might ask? Simple. A little magic with CGI using Perl or PHP will do the trick. A free copy of a script that does this is bundled with Postmaster Pro, available at http://www.postmasterpro.com which is discussed below.

What About Spammers Who Already Have My Address?

So far we’ve discussed a few fairly simple techniques designed to prevent spammers from obtaining your email address in the first place. But, how do you deal with the spam you’re already getting? Your address is already out there. The solution is to either block or filter.

For either, you’ll need software. For blocking, I recommend Postmaster Pro. If you prefer to filter then Spam Assassin is highly recommended. Both run on the server, so there is no need to download spam before filtering it out. That’s a huge time saver if you’re not yet on a high-speed connection. It also makes it a bit less likely you’ll end up downloading a virus since email from untrusted senders, i.e. spammers will be significantly reduced.

Spam Blocking Software

Postmaster Pro which is available at http://www.postmasterpro.com takes a novel approach to blocking spam. It only allows email to be delivered after people who’ve sent you email have been placed on an approved sender list. But the interesting thing is that people who send you email can put themselves on your approved list. This is done simply by clicking a link in an email that automatically gets sent to them the first time they send email to you, which is perfect for those of us who don’t know in advance whom we should put on the approved list, i.e. if you’re running a business online. It also makes building and maintaining such a list very simple.

Given the fact that spammers normally use invalid return addresses, and those who do use valid return addresses seldom read email that’s sent there, let alone respond to it (they receive thousands of failed delivery notifications, complaints, remove requests, and autoresponder messages every time they do a mailing) … it’s a very effective technique with no chance of blocking legitimate email, as is the case with filtering.

Spam Filtering Software

For those who would prefer to filter … Spam Assassin is perhaps the best option. It is available at http://www.spamassassin.org. Once you have Spam Assassin installed, it will provide you with very powerful and flexible filtering tools. Spam Assassin is a mature product, having been around for quite some time. If you’re going to filter, Spam Assassin is about as good as it gets.

As with any filter though, you do run the risk of missing legitimate email from time to time. There really isn’t a good way to tell how often this is happening unless you want to read all the email that gets filtered out, which negates the whole point of filtering. If you set your filters permissively enough though, you should be reasonably safe. For the first month or so after installing any filter, you should continue to read every single email in order to make sure it isn’t set too restrictively to allow legitimate email through.

By using the techniques mentioned in this article, you can take back your mailbox, and dramatically reduce, if not eliminate spam.

About The Author

Sean Proske is the CEO and founding partner of thewebhostcompany.com which has provided reliable and affordable hosting since 1996.

sproske@thewebhostcompany.com

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Do you get bounced, or rejected emails sent by someone else, with YOUR email address in the From line? Does it mean your computer was hacked, or a spammer has stolen your email address? Relax… this is the work of a spammer, but it does NOT indicate any security breach on your computer.

Why do spammers use MY email address?

Spammers generally don’t like to poke their misshapen little heads out from under the rocks where they live, so they try to divert attention from themselves by making it look like someone else sent that “enlarge your body part” message.

It’s trivially easy to spoof the From address in an email. In fact, most email software will allow you to change the From or the Reply-to address to whatever you want. Spammers use high-volume mail merge software that picks a From address at random from their database of addresses, and sometimes even the recipient address is forged.

The reason you get those bounce messages is because the spammers don’t really care if some of their emails are sent to addresses that are invalid or defunct. It’s all a numbers game to them. Some email servers are smart enough to look in the email headers and easily determine that the person in the From line (in this case, you) didn’t really send the message. But others do not, so you get dumped on.

It’s even worse when the spam *is* delivered to a valid address and that person blames YOU. In such a case, you can just explain that it was the work of an Evil Spammer who forged your address. If they give you flack, tell them to examine the Received lines in the email headers (most email programs let you view the headers if you poke around in the options) and they’ll see that the source of the message was not your service provider.

This article has been reprinted from: http://www.askbobrankin.com/spammer_using_my_email_address.html

BOB RANKIN …is a tech writer and computer programmer who enjoys exploring the Internet and sharing the fruit of his experience with others. His work has appeared in ComputerWorld, NetGuide, and NY Newsday. Bob is publisher of the Internet TOURBUS newsletter, author of several computer books, and creator of Lowfat Linux. For more helpful articles and free tech support, visit http://www.AskBobRankin.com

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