Recently I received an email from a close friend saying he was in the UK, had lost his wallet, and the hotel wouldn’t return his passport until he paid his bill. Would I wire him $2,000? My first reaction was to try to help because the email appeared legit just like all the other emails I had received from him over the years. Fortunately I checked with his brother first and didn’t send the money. But others have been victim of this scam. See “E-mail fraudster targets Torontonians”.
Here is a security tip to help prevent this from happening to you. Change your email password, and indeed all of your passwords, every 2-3 months. Here is a password generator to create random passwords for you: http://www.makepass.com/.
It’s impossible to remember all of our passwords especially if they are all different and randomly generated, which they should be. Here’s a way to store your passwords securely, Password Safe: http://www.schneier.com/passsafe.html.
Both Makepass and Password Safe are open-source, free programs.
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