Jun 30, 2004 -- Preventing spam mail and phishing scams
Clark hates getting spam, like most people do. He uses a free mail service that diverts spam mail into a “Bulk Mail” account, and it does a pretty good job. But about 10 percent of the mail coming into his regular Inbox is still spam. What if you were blind? Many blind people use vocal e-mail services that say the messages out loud. They hear all kinds of inappropriate messages, and they are starting to give up on e-mail. Clark is happy to report that the biggest players in the e-mail world are working together to stop spam at the source. Right now, we focus on stopping spam once they’ve already arrived in our Inbox. But we should be concentrating on preventing spam from arriving in the first place. In addition, the government has decided to stay out of a “Do Not Spam” list. Clark is glad to hear this. The “spamsters” are not going to abide by laws anyway, so establishing legislation would do nothing. Coordination in the industry is what we need. When it comes to the e-mail phishing scams in particular, Visa, the BBB and the federal government are all working together to stop this crime. During summer, our natural patterns are disrupted. For instance, we may go months without looking at our bank statements over the summer. If a criminal gets a hold of your account information through these phishing e-mails and 60 days go by without you reporting it, you lose the money forever. The bank does not have to give the money back. So, check those statements.
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