ANTI-HACKING HELP

A couple of years ago, I awoke to find that my email had sent out bogus notes, supposedly from me, recommending some electronics shopping site. I was horrified! And so were the two thousand or so recipients of said email! I even got some nasty notes asking me to take them off my “mailing list,” that I don’t even have.

But the more computer-knowledgeable pals of mine knew right away that I had gotten hacked and that the missives were indeed not from me. Thankfully, I had some evil-savvy contacts, so they weren’t angry at me, as everyone else was.

Nowadays, I get at least one email a day, from the address of someone I know, which is really from yet another rotten hacker. Why these people have nothing better to do with their time is beyond me. Why can’t they just play video games, like everyone else who likes to waste time?

One friend, Barbara Stewart, from Florida, gave me the best, simplest advice on preventing this from happening again, so I want to pass it on to all of you, before you, unintentionally, join the fray.

In your list of contacts, which go alphabetically, just list “!!!” as the very first one. It’ll go before the number addresses that go before the “A”s. For example, the first contact I had before is something like 4carol@hotmail so I just put !!! above it in my list in the “Contacts” section of my email.

So far, it’s worked for me, knock on wood, and I’ve passed this suggestion to others in the same boat. Since you’re my loyal readers, I want you to have it, too, while hoping you never need it. But forewarned is forearmed, so I hope it works for all of you, too.