Tired of Pre-Approved Credit Card Junk Mail?

You can go to www.optoutprescreen.com (or call 1-888-5-OPT-OUT) to help reduce the number of those pre-approved credit card junk mail letters you receive. Don’t expect overnight results, but I did this several months ago and the number of pre-approved offers has definitely diminished. Now, if we could just opt out of SPAM!

Anonymous Email

If you receive email from someone you don't recognize (or even if the name sounds familiar) with:

• no subject line or
• a subject line that is not descriptive or
• a subject line written with bad grammar or
• a nonsensical subject line...

Don't open the email, don't be curious, have no regrets...just delete it!

Warning, Forward to ALL Your Friends (Not Really!)

Have you ever received an email message about the following?

• The postcard/greeting card virus or
• Cell phone directory’s being made available to telemarketers or
• An email plea to help find Ashley Flores a missing child or
• A warning about bacteria on lemon wedges in restaurant water or
• The 809 Area Code Scam or
• The “Slow Dance” poem message (forward and the American Cancer Society will receive a donation) or
• The Microsoft/Bill Gates/AOL Giveaway or
• The ATM reverse PIN (summons police).

Only one is true and another partially true. You can check out http://www.hoax-slayer.com/ or http://www.snopes.com/, but your options for verifying whether an email message is a hoax or a scam are not limited to those two sites. Take a look at http://hoaxbusters.ciac.org/HBOtherHoaxPages.html which lists other Hoax/scam verifying sites...and have fun reading.

Remember, the most prolific SPAM generators are folks who forward untrue email messages warning their friends of impending dangers!

I Have an Account with Them?

If you receive email from a firm whose name you recognize (such as Smith Barney, PayPal, First Bank) but you've never done business with them, don't open it, don't be curious, just delete the message--especially if the message is part of a barrage of email messages purportedly from the company.