Internetworkers: http://www.ibiblio.org/internetworkers/

[Steven Champeon <schampeo AT hesketh.com>]

on Thu, Sep 30, 2010 at 09:41:34AM -0400, Jeanne Moyer wrote:
> Many of my friends and contacts have had their email addresses hijacked
> lately. Seems more hotmai than any otherl, only one gmail so far.  What
> should I be doing to protect my computer other than the obvious?
> 
> I NEVER click on the links.  I am running AVG.  I have written back to my
> friends to let them know about the emails with a message containing
> information that only the two of us know so they know it is reallly me.

As John pointed out, some of these may be forgeries, but there's also a
popular scam being run lately where some criminal cracks your email
password and actually has access to your account (or twitter, or
facebook, etc.) and sends a message to everyone in your address book
saying you're caught without cash after being mugged or whatever in some
foreign land, asking for help (send/wire cash, etc.) that can easily be
prevented. If your password(s) are simple, CHANGE THEM TO SOMETHING HARD
TO GUESS. And by hard to guess, I mean hard for a computer to match
against huge databases of obvious passwords. 

http://lifehacker.com/184773/geek-to-live--choose-and-remember-great-passwords

Oh, and don't ever send any of your friends money based on some frantic
email - try calling them at home first :-)

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