By Suzann Dodd, ContributorI HAVE delayed publishing this article so as not to scare as I know many of you are still afraid of your computers and consider the Internet a kind of side door to hell.
In 1995 when I first got on the Internet, I, as many of that generation, was a little too trusting. Not that my Credit Card was maxed out, not that I was sent viri (I never used Windows 95 so avoided a lot of grief) but that I was honest.
- Never tell the truth on the internet unless you are selling something and
want people to get your name and address
- Never use your real name and address save when you are purchasing something
from a reliable source. Get your American currency Credit Card in as low an
amount as you can. This is the one you use on the Internet and use it only
for purchasing on the net. In this way if anything goes wrong you'll catch
it immediately. If you go to www.google.com and in the search slot enter your
e-mail account, you might be horrified to find your name and address there
as well. Anyone can go to google.com if they have your email address.
If you listened and created a spam box under another name with a false address then you can shrug. If you didn't listen and got yourself on a news group with your real address or name, google WILL turn that up. Okay, we live in Jamaica so it's unlikely some lunatic from New Jersey is coming down your road, however, it does not bring a smile to your face to know the possibilities.
- Never ever use your ISP email save to write to close friends. Get spam
boxes and lie. Never join a news group with any email address in which you
have used your real name.
Here is what you do. Go to hotmail.com, netscape.com, yahoo.com, crapmail.com, whatever. Fill out the application using a false name and address. Use that spam box as your e-mail address everywhere.
If I do a search on you because I've gotten your e-mail address, all google.com can turn up, if it turns up anything is a big lie.
Interestingly, searching my e-mail accounts (and I've got plenty) nothing has been found. Using my ancient and no longer in use e-mail address google turns up a news group I joined in 1996.
But then, I was innocent.
