Fwd: E-mail self responder warning

[John S. Baltutis]

This just in from the MacWizards moderator.

>Date: Wed, 11 Dec 2002 15:17:37 -0500
>Subject: [macwiz] E-mail self responder warning
>From: Stan Greenspan <contact at interactivepages.com>
>
>I received this about 10 minutes ago from Steve Crisp, a colleague in
>Raleigh, North Carolina. I've known Steve for a couple of years and
>have always found his advice to be good. He does not send out spam or
>use scare tactics. If he says it's true, it's true. Please send this
>out to your lists for redistribution.
>
>Stan Greenspan
>
>+++++++++++++++++++++
>This email involves recent reports of fraud and theft involving email
>autoresponders.
>
>Several groups in England have been blasting out hundreds of thousands of
>emails which appear to be garden-variety spam. They are not. What they
>are trying to do is get back autoresponder messages -- especially those
>which indicate that the person is on vacation and will return at some
>specific time in the future.
>
>They then take those autoreplies, correlate them with public information
>that ties ones email address to their name and street address, and then
>drive up to an empty house/office, stealing everything in it.
>
>If you are going to use autoresponder messages at all, keep them very
>generic. Indicate only that the incoming email has been received and that
>you will answer shortly. DO NOT indicate that you are on vacation or that
>you are not at home/in your office. The same holds true for telephone
>voice answering machine messages.
>
>Remember, 99 percent of your security involves you not doing ignorant
>things to compromise your safety. In fact, if you really want to read a
>good book about how some of the seemingly innocuous things you do
>everyday without thinking about them can come back and bite you, get a
>copy of "The Art Of Deception" by Kevin Mitnick. You will be amazed at
>how he used simple pieces of information to crack into people's computer
>systems.
>
>Steve Crisp
>PagePlanet Software, Inc.
>3300 Octavia Street
>Raleigh, NC  27606
>+++++++++++++++++++++
>
>http://www.interactivepages.com The Official® MacWizards Archives!