Miscellaneous
When you forward your e-mail to third party providers, be careful of complaining about SPAM. For example, if you read e-mail using an AOL account and you click the AOL 'spam' button, AOL looks to see who sent the message. If the number of SPAM complaints goes above a threshold, the sender will be blocked from sending further messages to all AOL accounts.
There are two problems associated with this: * If someone spams your JMU e-mail account and you've set the account to forward to your AOL account, then it looks to AOL as if JMU was the spammer. If too many people complain, JMU will get blocked from AOL and you will no longer receive any e-mail through your JMU e-mail account. * Apparently, the 'save' and 'spam' buttons on the AOL client are in close proximity leading to lots of people hitting the wrong button. People are hitting the SPAM button which again may result in JMU not being able to send e-mail to AOL. When you read and send e-mail using the JMU e-mail system with a browser or properly configured e-mail client, your sessions are encrypted between your desktop and our e-mail server.
As long as the messages are sent between people using the JMU e-mail system, the messages are protected from prying eyes on the wire. Once the message leaves the JMU e-mail system, anyone with access to the wires or interim e-mail servers can view the messages. Attempts to trick people into providing account numbers, passwords, and other sensitive information through fraudulent e-mail and web sites is becoming commonplace. Symantec reported 7.5 million of these messages were sent per day in the first half of 2005. If you haven't seen these, take a look at recent examples shown at http://www.fraudwatchinternational.com/phishing/index.php to see how easy it is to fake e-mail and web sites.
Do not provide sensitive information or install software based solely on the information in an e-mail or instant message. Verify. More information on phishing and general electronic communications fraud is located on the main JMU computing security page. Spoofing can have serious consequences for legitimate e-mail users. Not only can their e-mail inboxes get clogged up with "undeliverable" e-mails in addition to volumes of spam, they can mistakenly be identified as a spammer. Not only may they receive irate e-mail from spam victims, but (if spam victims report the e-mail address owner to the ISP, for example) their ISP may terminate their service for spamming. Spammers may engage in deliberate fraud to send out their messages.
Spammers often use false names, addresses, phone numbers, and other contact information to set up "disposable" accounts at various Internet service providers. They also often use falsified or stolen credit card numbers to pay for these accounts. This allows them to move quickly from one account to the next as the host ISPs discover and shut down each one. Make sure you never provide your password to fraudulent websites.
To safely and securely access any banking website or your account, open a new web browser (e.g. Internet Explorer or Netscape) and type in the sites respective URL to be sure you are on the real website. Never enter your password in an email. Protect Your Password, You should never give your password to anyone, including website employees.