The Case of the Stolen Hotmail

2Jour Computer Coaching Toronto, Canada

Ring ring ring..

"Hello?"

"Karl, my gosh what happened to you man?"

"Charlie?! It's 4 in the morning!!!! You gotta stop this!"

The call from your Ottawa friend of many years did not surprise you. Ever since your move to the big city Toronto, Charlie has found many ways to contact you, tweets, IMs, and also by the soon to be obsolete phone.

"Karl, Toronto has changed you!! Why are you selling prescription drugs?"

"Huh? WHAT?? Charlie what's wrong with you?"

"Karl, you keep sending us mail from your hotmail account about cheap prescription drugs. Jose thought we should do an intervention. "

"But Charlie, I am not selling anything. I have no idea why you are getting email from me... I"

"Karl, you need to STOP the insanity and move back to Ottawa!"

"Is this Jose?", you reply getting more and more anxious.

"Yes, I am here as well as all your friends who have received your disturbing email. Please come home."

Your heart races and you wonder, "Did someone steal my Hotmail account?"

.............................

Your internet account, like email, can be hijacked for a variety of reasons. In any case, the best thing to do is to change your password immediately.

Below are some scenarios on how your account information could be stolen:

1. You log on to your account from a public computer or mobile device without logging out and clearing your activity from the computer. The next time you go to an Apple store and check out your email or facebook account on the shiny iPad, make sure you remove traces of your username and password.

2. You have been Phished! At some point, you logged on to a fake website that looks like your internet account and you supplied the fake website with your username and password.

3. Malware (virus, spyware) is on your computer. It is logging on to your account through the userid and password stored on your computer. Therefore, you need to change your password for your internet account on an UNAFFECTED computer. You will also need to do a scan of your computer and remove the offending program.

Can't Read Word Documents? Use Word Viewer

Computer Coaching for Seniors Ottawa Canada

"Karl!" Charlie waved enthusiastically as he saw his friend enter Tim Horton's.

As Karl came over, Charlie asked, "Are you in or out?"

"Charlie, what are you talking about?", Karl replied perplexed.

"Didn't you get the document I emailed you about Céline Dion?"

"Well I did, but there were no programs that could view it."

Charlie could not believe his ears. "Karl, you mean to tell me that Word is not on your computer?!? What do you use to write letters or documents?"

"Um (gulp)...wordpad?"

"Oh my gosh man, this is TERRIBLE!!!" Charlie knew that Karl was doomed.

..........

Luckily, not having Word, Powerpoint or Excel on your computer is not the end of the world :).

If you want to read/print Word documents, then you can download for free Word Viewer from the Microsoft site. Microsoft also offers Powerpoint Viewer and Excel Viewer.

Next week we will talk about free alternative programs to Microsoft Word.

Email: Be Careful What You Write

Computer Coaching for Seniors Ottawa, Canada

Ring Ring Ring....

It is 11 o'clock at night and you know there is only one person who would call at this late hour.

"Hi Charlie," you answer.

"Karl, you said you weren't mad at me," Charlie responded.

"I am not mad at you, Charlie. Why do you keep thinking that I am mad at you?"

"Your last email troubled me. You were shouting. WHY WERE YOU SHOUTING?!?"

"Charlie, that is ridiculous! How can you shout through email?"

"Well, your whole email had capital letters. There was not one lower case letter to be found. Words with only capital letters mean one thing: you're shouting. And.. what's up with the exclamation mark? Darn it Karl, my feelings were hurt!!!"

..............


It is very easy to miscommunicate through email because it is only text. It is different when you talk on the phone because you not only have words but you have the tone of voice to help you figure out the message's intent.


Here are some ways you can avoid such miscommunications.

1. Use emoticons. Emoticons are text facial expressions to help portray a sentiment. If you think what you are writing may be taken the wrong way then you should definitely use them. For example:

• :) means happy. The colon are the eyes and the right bracket is the mouth.
• :( means sad. The colon are the eyes and the left bracket is the mouth.

2. Unless your intention is to shout, avoid using all upper case letters in your email and exclamation marks. For example:

• I WENT SHOPPING! - In the email, you are shouting that you went shopping and you sound very angry.
  
• I went shopping. - In the email, you are stating you went shopping and you sound neutral.
  

The Case of the Missing E-mail: Sorting

Computer Coaching for Seniors Ottawa, Canada

Ring ...Ring... Ring...

You pick up the phone and it's Charlie.

"Karl, please forgive me!!!! I was going to tell you about the shirt..HONEST!!!!"

"Um Charlie what are you talking about?" you ask.

"Uh.. Nothing," Charlie replied, "You're not mad at me, Karl, are you?"

"Why would I be mad at you?"

"You haven't E-mailed me in DAYS. Karl!!!!!! DAYS!!!!!"

"Ohhh that's cause I don't know where my new E-mail appears. It used to be at the bottom of the E-mail list but now it shows up all over the place. I swear I have a virus."


"Karl, I don't think it's a virus. You are not sorting your E-mail by date."

................
At the top of the E-mail list there are 3 columns:

• From - The name of the person who sent you the E-Mail
  
• Subject - The subject of the E-Mail.
  
• Received - The date you received your E-mail.
  

Normally, your E-mail is sorted by the date you Received your E-mail in ascending order. This is why new E-mail appears at the bottom of the list.

If you click with your mouse on the Subject column, then your mail is sorted by Subject. Your new E-mail will appear based on the sorting order of the subject.

If you click with your mouse on the From column, your new E-mail will appear based on the sorting order of the sender's name

To go back to sorting your E-Mail by date (new E-mail appearing at the bottom of the list):

1. Click with your mouse on the Received column.
   
2. If the sorting order is descending, click with your mouse on the Received column again to change the sorting order to ascending.

Not all E-Mail Messages are True

Computer Coaching for Seniors Ottawa Canada


Charlie sent you this message:

Karl read this!!!!! This was forwarded to me by José.

Forwarded Message

According to CBC reports, Ontario water has been contaminated. Only drink from bottled water.

There are unfortunately a lot of false messages that circulate via E-Mail. A lot of them are what is known as an "Urban Legend". This is why if you get a message like the one above, verify for yourself if this is true.

In the case above, you could simply go to the CBC website and see if they mention anything about the contaminated water.

Another website is snopes. It stores all the false messages that have circulated in the past and you can search if your message is one of them.

E-Mail: Is it on my Computer?

Computer Coaching for Seniors Ottawa Canada

The doorbell rings and it is Charlie. He is in tears.

"Charlie, what happened?" you ask.

"It is all gone. All my E-Mail... GONE!!!! My harddrive failed!" shouted Charlie

"Didn't you backup?"

"NOOO! Alright, are you happy? I did not backup!!!! Stop tormenting me!!!!!" Charlie furiously replied.

"Charlie, now calm down. You use a browser like Internet Explorer to read your E-Mail, right?"

"Yeah, so?"

"I think your E-Mail is safe. It is not stored on your computer!"

There are two ways you can read E-Mail.

One way is to read your E-Mail using your internet browser like Internet Explorer or Safari. In this case, you access your E-Mail on your E-Mail provider's computer. For example, if you use Internet Explorer to read your Hotmail then you are reading it from Hotmail's computer, not your own.

The second way is to read E-Mail using an E-Mail program like Outlook Express or Mail (Apple). In this situation, the E-Mail program (Outlook Express) pulls in or downloads your mail from your E-Mail provider's computer and stores it on your computer. When you read your E-Mail, you are reading it from your computer.

There are exceptions but in general if you know what program you read your E-Mail with, you can determine if your E-Mail is on your computer:

- Internet Explorer or any other browser? E-Mail not on your computer.
- Outlook/Outlook Express? E-Mail on your computer.