Sexy Susan on the ball (email privacy)

Name: dave27

Hello doyoo user, You have to be logged in to use these functions... Login or register Close window

Send message to member

Product:	email privacy
Date:	14/11/02 (437 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: None

Disadvantages: No system is infallible

Okay, 8.30 this morning and I'm logging in to my AOL account to check out my e-mails, when the nightmare scenario dawns - "Incorrect password - please try again". Well, I could have typed it incorrectly I suppose, so try again. ULP - same message - clearly something's up.

I gave the nice Irish people on the AOL helpline a ring and after pressing the necessary buttons, eventually managed to get to talk to a real live human being. I gave her the rundown on my problem and back came the earnest news - "We've had to lock your account because someone has broken into your account and is using it to send out dubious e-mails." Oh my God, I thought, this could be serious.

AOL re-set my password for me, and after a few glitches I was back in and able to check my Inbox, but it was the Sent Mail list which was far more interesting to me. And lo and behold, they were absolutely right, for there stuffing out my Sent Folder was a string of unpleasant looking pron SPAM communications, urging me to check out their horny web cam - upon looking at the Inbox, it was apparent that someone out there was objecting to the crap they were being sent because I'd already received a load of e-mails angrily asking to be removed from my mailing list.

Now this is a terrible experience to have, almost like suffering in the knowledge that a burglar's been rifling through your underwear draw - you feel so unclean.

How did this happen?

Dunno, but apparently there are some nasty little cracker/hackers out there ready willing and able to crack your pathetic password and go wandering through your virtual knicker drawer.

It all comes from not spending enough time or energy on ensuring that your password is difficult to crack. I don't know how they did it because my password wasn't TOO simple but they obviously managed it.

So word of warning time - don't go for easy English words or names
, because they're particularly easy to crack - always opt for a mix of numbers and letters which don't seem to make any sense - they're harder for you to remember normally, but immensely more difficult to crack, and remember PASSWORD is strictly a No No.

There are unscrupulous wrong doers out there who will not hesitate to use your online identity to further their nefarious activities in the knowledge that it will be you who incur all the wrath, flames, bombs and irate ISP's. Thankfully, AOL have a pretty decent checking system, so these things don't go unchecked for long, but these nasty e-mails had been going out in my name for about a week without me even knowing about them. Because after all, how often do you check your Sent Mail folder. Very rarely, I expect.

Now that's obviously another recommendation - check your Sent Mail regularly so you can pick up any problems.

Of course, this section on Dooyoo is primarily around the issues revolving around others eavesdropping on your activities, but I think scams such as the one perpetrated upon my account are just as nasty and worrying as any amount of Governmental snooping.

Summary: