Tips for Using E-Mail Safely

Tips for Using E-mail Safely

Good safety habits extend beyond avoiding physical harm; you should also work to keep the vital information on your PC out of the wrong hands.

Don’t send vital or private information via e-mail. Keep in mind that unlike Web sites, e-mail is never secure.

Shield your computer from e-mail viruses. Computer viruses can impair and seriously damage your computer. Viruses are often distributed via attachments in e-mail spam. Never open an attachment from someone you don’t know, and, if you receive a strange or impersonal-sounding message from a familiar address, check with that person to make sure that they really sent it. It may be a “spoofed” e-mail, a message that appears to have been sent from one source when it actually was sent from another source entirely.

To protect your computer and your network from viruses, follow these tips:

 Keep your anti-virus software up to date.  Run your anti-virus software regularly.  Use a firewall.  Update and apply software patches to close vulnerabilities.  Download free software only from sites you know and trust, and don’t install software without knowing what it is.  Set Internet Explorer browser security to “high”  Don’t click on links in pop-up windows or in spam e-mail.

Don’t respond to e-mail inquiries about your account numbers or other personal information. It is called “phishing” when e-mail scam artists pose as representatives of banks, stores or government agencies and send official-looking messages requesting information or confirmation of your account numbers, Social Security number, passwords, and other private information.

The e-mail may be from your own bank or a company you do business with, and may even include a link to a fraudulent Web site with spaces to enter or update your personal or private information.

Phishers also use pop-up windows to try and scam users into entering sensitive information.

Phishing attempts have grown so sophisticated that it can be hard to tell if an e-mail or Web site is authentic. However, keep in mind that a business with sensitive information like your credit card company or Paypal would never ask you to share personal or private information via e-mail. E-mail is never secure.

(Source: WiredSafety.org)

This article is part of the NATIONAL ASSOCIATION OF REALTORS’® 2006 REALTOR® Safety Week Kit.