Email Matters – Show notes from radio show

**** For those who want to listen to my segment on the radio each Wednesday at 11.15 am Australian Eastern Standard Time, please go to www.abc.net.au/goldcoast. You’ll see a link to ‘Listen to Coast FM’ on the side menu bar. ****

For sending email newsletters, and keeping in touch with your readers, check out:

• http://www.readnotify.com – Lets you know when people read your emails, and provides quite a few other details.
• http://www.didtheyreadit.com – Provides a similar service.
• http://www.constantcontact.com – Complete e-newsletter system, with extensive statistics and tracking features.

A quick note on email viruses:

• Email viruses are now twice as prevalent as they were in 2001, with one email in every 200 containing a virus.
• In 2005, from May 3rd to 7th, the percentage of emails carrying the ‘sober’ virus was actually greater than the percentage of legitimate emails!

Other security risks:

• Be aware of Phishing attempts – much like fishing, these people will send a lure in front of you and wait for a bite.
• If you receive an email “from your bank”, be aware that banks will NEVER ask you for passwords or personal details via something as unsecure as email.
• Emails that have a link to a “sign in” or “log in” page – never click the link! Always type the web address of your bank into your address bar yourself! This prevents sneaky redirections to pages that LOOK like the one you expect, but actually send your log-in details to somebody else.
• Phishing and Pharming attempts are very common with banks, e-Bay, and Paypal.
• Check this page out for more information on Phishing, and how to prevent it: http://symantec.com/homecomputing/library/phish.html

A note on spam:

• We all hate spam, right? Ever wonder why you get so much?
• 40 % of all email is spam!
• The reason we get so much is that it actually works!
• Turns out that 11% of people buy items offered in spam email!

Virus Protection:

• Every computer should have some form of virus protection.
• It is important to keep your virus definitions up to date.
• Virus definitions are like a rule-book that lets the software identify new virus outbreaks.
• New viruses come out on a daily basis, so if you don’t update regularly, you are vulnerable!

Hope that is of some interest.