ASCOG was recently the victim of a destructive virus that attacked our phone and voicemail server. The virus was introduced to our network through an unwanted email. We had to completely reprogram our phone and voicemail systems. It took a lot of work hours to repair our systems and made it challenging to complete our work when we could not respond to our clients’ phone calls.
Spam is unwanted commercial email. Most of the time spam is just annoying. Other times it can be costly as it is an easy way for hackers to gain access to your computer systems. It is worth our time to work on preventing spam as much as possible. Here are some ideas to help you do just that.
First, learn to recognize common online scams. Beware of promises to hire you as a mystery shopper, DNA kits reimbursed by Medicare, student loan debt relief, quick credit fixes and generally any emails pretending to be the government. If it sounds too good to be true, it probably is.
Second, use an email filter. Most of the time good email filters can be provided by your internet service provider. Google has excellent spam proofing for gmail. And Microsoft has excellent software to filter emails that could harm personal computers.
Third, limit your exposure. You might try using two email addresses, one for shopping and one for wanted messages. Do not use your work email for personal shopping.
Fourth, leave boxes unchecked that give the site your are signing up for permission to use your email address. Look for the pre-checked boxes and remove the check from those boxes whenever you can. By leaving the box checked, you are giving the company permission to sell your information to a third party.
Fifth, try using a unique email address, one that includes random letters and numbers. Spammers will often deploy emails to millions of email combinations, hoping to find valid email addresses. Most companies do think to email j26dOe34@gmail.com.
Sixth, disconnect your computer from the internet when not in use. This keeps hackers from accessing your computer when you are not there.
Seventh, be cautious about opening any email attachments or clicking on links you are not familiar with. Unless you are expecting the attachment or link, avoid clicking on it. Just delete the email.
Finally, you can help reduce spam by forwarding any unwanted or untrustworthy messages to spam@uce.gov. Just let them know at the top of your email that you are complaining about getting spammed. You can find more information about reducing spam at www.consumer.ftc.gov.
