I’m seeing a lot of communications floating around here lately about Spam. Not the canned food, but the electronic version, of course. Unlike the food, there are many varieties of electronic spam such as email spam, mobile phone spam, instant messaging spam, and many others. The one type of spam I’m hearing so much about lately is the type that comes into your email mailbox, you know, the unsolicited and undesired electronic junk mail that’s trying to sell you something you really don’t need or want. Often, the email doesn’t even appear to be addressed to you but it is because your address is on the blind carbon copy (bcc.)
So how do spammers get your email address anyway? Well, there are many sneaky sites out on the internet that you visit that asks you for your email address for the sole purpose of getting your address to sell. It might be a survey form or an entry into a contest. It’s important to always read privacy policies before giving out your email address. Another source of email addresses is on those “chain” type emails that get forwarded multiple times and have multiple addresses embedded. If you’re sending emails to multiple people, consider using the blind carbon copy function so none of the addresses are visable to the recipients. And, if you receive emails with addressess embedded, be sure to strip those out before forwarding the email onto anyone else. Finally, spammers might even get your address by hit or miss, that is by simply making up email addresses by taking a common name and adding a @wowway.com, a @msn.com, or a @hotmail.com to it.
If your WOW! email box is getting deluged with spam email, turning on the spam filter can help. But, you’ll need to remember to check the “junk” folder on a regular basis to make sure legitimate emails that you want to receive are not getting blocked. If they are, there are email filter settings you can set to allow them to get through. If you need help with spam or email filters, feel free to give us a call. As always, we’re here to help you get the most out of your WOW! service.
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My technical knowledge about Internet risks and dangers skims the surface of all there is to know and as I’ve been talking to people and writing articles here, I’ve been learning a lot more. Lately, I’ve been hearing a lot of buzz from our troubleshooting teams about phishing, so for today’s article, I thought I’d explore this term I’ve heard but don’t know much about. Up until today all I knew was whatever it was, it had to be bad because it’s always mentioned in the list of dreaded Internet risks and dangers, like viruses and bugs. As I began to research, I quickly learned that phishing is bad, very bad indeed. So, if you missed the article from our own Technology Editor, Steve Stanfill, about his own personal experience with phishing, and some good advice he offered in his article, click here http://www.thewowbuzz.com/blog/technology/gone-phishing-or-not to read it now. It’s definately a topic worth talking about again, to educate and to warn our customers about this terrible act of “phishing.”
According to Webopedia, “phishing (fish’ing)(n) is the act of sending an e-mail to a user falsely claiming to be an established legitimate enterprise in an attempt to scam the user into surrendering private information that will be used for identity theft. The e-mail directs the users to visit a web site where they are asked to update personal information, such as passwords and credit card, social security, and bank account numbers that the legitimate organization already has. The web site, however, is bogus and set up only to steal the user’s information.” The name “phishing” is a variation on the term “fishing” with the idea that the email “bait” is being thrown out with the hopes that some will be tempted to biting the bait, while most will ignore it. Phishing scams are so prolific that there are lots of websites devoted to providing advice and tools on how to protect yourself from these frauds.
The latest gab from the call center technical team is a brand new variation of phishing called “tabnabbing.” Tabnabbing is described as the process of replacing the entire contents of a page while it’s in a background tab. If you’re interested in learning more, I encourage you to go googling on the net to learn more about it. It’s an interesting and slick scam for sure and as we learn more, it will make a good topic for a future article.
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Having just returned from a short vacation, my email box at work was full to say the least. Even though I check messages and discard many while away with my iPhone, they still piled up to a significant number before I returned. Lurking in the middle of my legitimate business messages were no less than three announcements (which had managed to get through our rather aggressive spam filter) heralding the news that I had either won or inherited a significant amount of money to be drawn on a foreign bank if I responded within 48 hours to the solicitation.
I continue to be amazed at the persistence and skill of the scam artists out there that will do almost anything to obtain personal information to steal a) your identity, or b) your money. Some of these ploys are obvious, but I’ve noticed that the trend is toward an increase in sophistication for these types of email/internet scams. This is unsettling on several levels, but I believe that educated internet commerce is reasonably safe if one is careful.
I ran across this link from Verisign, one of the web security providers in our industry, that was a well designed test on how to spot spoofed websites, and I thought that I would share it with all of you. Please understand that there is a commercial element to this test (aka, Verisign is trying to sell security services with this test, particularly the last half, which can be ignored), but the first half of the “test” gives some specific things to look for in web sites where things “aren’t quite right”. I passed with 100%, but it took some time to find the issues that were the “giveaways” in some cases. Take the test. Hopefully the knowledge gained will help you engage internet commerce more safely as these guys get more and more sophisticated:
Click here to take Verisign’s Phish or no Phish test.
Until next time….
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The internet can be a valuable educational tool as well as provide hours of entertainment. Children can use the Internet for homework assistance or to research topics of interest. Unfortunately, the Internet can also be a dangerous place for children. It is up to parents to educate themselves and their children about the Internet and its potential dangers.
Benefits of the Internet
The Internet offers the following benefits:
- Contains many good sources of educational information
- Provides up-to-date news articles from around the globe
- Allows access to entertaining and educational games
- Enables communication with friends and relatives through chat and email
Dangers of the Internet
Parents need to be aware of the following potential Internet dangers:
- Credibility. There are no restrictions to what someone can post on a web site. Therefore, not all internet sites are credible or contain accurate information. When using the Internet for homework assistance, be sure to teach your children to verify information using multiple sources.
- Online stalkers or predators. Unfortunately, there are individuals who use the Internet in a malicious way, or as a way to harass others. Some users will pose as children in order to gain the trust of younger users.
- Unsolicited email or “spam.” These messages usually come from unknown senders and may contain inappropriate content or images or may try to solicit money or other personal information.
- Questionable content. It is very easy to access sites that contain sexually explicit, violent or other inappropriate materials. Even a simple online search can turn up a number of these sites.
- Easy access to online shopping. The Internet makes it easy to browse through auction or retail sites. With a credit card number, users can purchase goods and services with just the click of the mouse.
- Viruses. Some Internet sites can cause viruses to be downloaded to your computer, resulting in the lost information and other damage.
General Internet Safety Tips
If your children will be using the computer and the Internet, keep the following safety tips in mind:
- Learn about the Internet and be aware of both its benefits and risks. Talk to your children about the risks so that they can also be more informed users.
- Stay involved and informed about your child’s Internet use. There are programs that you can install that can monitor computer activity or block access to certain Internet sites. You can also stay on top of computer use by placing the computer in a common area in your home.
- Set rules for Internet use. These rules may include limiting you children to certain Internet sites, restricting the use of chat rooms, setting aside certain times of the day for computer use and limiting the number of hours that can be spent online.
- Keep all email accounts in your name and make sure that you have access to all accounts. Sharing an email account among family members can be a good solution an can allow everyone to keep in touch with other relatives.
- Talk with your children about the dangers of chatting and email. Insist that you children never give out personal information or schedule a face-to-face meeting with anyone they met online.
- Establish rules for online shopping and purchases.
- Teach your children how to exit uncomfortable situations if you allow them to use chat rooms. Also teach them to inform you about any questionable email that they receive.
© ComPsych® Corporation. All Rights reserved. This information is for educational purposes only.
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The WOW! Customer Home Page is your one-stop page for all your online needs. Besides easy access to your email and WOW! account management, you can also check the weather, your WOW! TV listings or even watch online video all from the WOW! Customer Home Page.
You can easily customize your page by selecting the add content button in the top right corner of the page. There are numerous categories to choose from like Business, Entertainment, News, and Sports. You can also choose what column to add the content too and the content can be dragged up or down within column so you can put your favorite information where you want it.
Checking email couldn’t be easier either. While logged in to your customer homepage you can see the 3 newest messages that are in your inbox and you can use the quick compose tab to send an email without opening the full email window. Do you need a break from email? Why not try the Games channel and try your hand at some mini golf or maybe a game of Bejeweled 2.
Still not convinced? Take a tour now to see for yourself here. So with all these nice features, why not try the WOW! Customer Hompage today?
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