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Subject: |
Should You Be Using e-Mail In Your Business? |
| Date: |
2009-09-28
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Should You Be Using
e-Mail In Your Business?
By Cliff Ennico
www.creators.com
It may seem odd to be asking this question in
2009. After all, the Internet has been with us for about 15
years, and e-mail was one of the first "killer apps" to emerge in the
Internet era. Everybody uses e-mail, for just about everything,
and I'd be willing to bet there are literally trillions of e-mails
floating around in cyberspace leaving an amazing archaeological record
of how we all lived our lives at the dawn of the Third Millennium A.D.
But something that happened to me recently has made
me wonder whether we should be relying so much on e-mail.
Earlier this year, I woke up one morning to find I
couldn't receive e-mails. I contacted my Internet Service
Provider (ISP) and, after several hours, was informed that one of my
websites – the one my primary e-mail address is tied to - had been
invaded by a "worm" program. Apparently someone had deduced my
password, and was using my address to send "please wire money to our
bank account in Lower Slobbovia" e-mails to everyone in my e-mail
address book.
My ISP changed my password, and I started getting
e-mails again. I thought that was the end of it, until several of
my law clients complained that their e-mail messages to me were not
getting through. They said they were receiving "bounceback"
messages from their ISPs saying, in effect, that my e-mail address
didn't exist. Most of the frustrated clients were using one of
the large cable companies as their ISP.
I called my ISP, who in turn called tech support at
the large cable company. It seems that his e-mail server had been
"blacklisted" by the cable company because of all the "scam-spam"
messages that had come from my e-mail address when the "worm" program
had taken it over. The two ISPs exchanged a few numbers, the
server was removed from the cable company's "blacklist", and I was
assured the problem was solved.
Except that I kept receiving calls from frustrated
clients, using other ISPs, saying that my e-mail address still wasn't
working.
A couple of weeks ago I had to travel across country
on business, which meant accessing my e-mails from the road using my
ISP's "webmail" program. When I logged into my webmail account, I
was shocked to discover that the name on my account was that of the
"scam-spam" fraudster. Apparently my ISP neglected to change the
identity on the account when they changed my password, so that every
time I sent a message, replied to a message or forwarded a message,
unbeknownst to me the fraudster's "scam-spam" message was being tacked
on at the end of my legitimate message.
As a result, a number of large ISPs were continuing
to "blacklist" my ISP's e-mail server, which explained why some clients
could not communicate with me via e-mail.
Needless to say, I had some choice words for my
ISP. While it appears (at least for now) that there are no
tag-along "scam-spam" messages on my outgoing e-mail messages, I am
still occasionally getting calls from people saying their messages to
my primary e-mail address are bouncing back to them. And I am
sure a lot of people who are trying to reach me for the first time via
e-mail have not been able to get through.
I am being told the only way I can be 100% certain
the problem has been solved would be to change my primary e-mail
address to a different website - something I am extremely reluctant to
do, as I have used my address for almost 15 years now and would have to
give notice to thousands of people. To say nothing of the
hundreds of articles I have written that are posted somewhere on the
Web and which prominently feature an e-mail address that would no
longer be valid.
My purpose in sharing this with you is not merely to
vent my frustration. It is to point out that, even in the year
2009, there are serious and unresolved issues with e-mail
communications. In light of my recent experience, I am no longer
sure that communication via e-mail is 100% reliable, dependable, or
secure. My faith in e-mail has been shaken to the core, and I am
not sure you should trust your sensitive business communications to
it.
So if you are sending me an e-mail message in
response to this column, please use the e-mail address below - the last
time I checked, it was still working. If you are using another
e-mail address for me, and I have not responded to an e-mail message
you have sent me, you now know the reason why. If I have made you
nervous about communicating via e-mail, please call me, or send me a
letter.
And PLEASE, whatever you do, do not send any money
to a bank account in Lower Slobbovia because you think I asked you to.
Cliff Ennico (cennico@legalcareer.com)
is a syndicated columnist, author and former host of the PBS television
series 'Money Hunt'. This column is no substitute for legal, tax or
financial advice, which can be furnished only by a qualified
professional licensed in your state. To find out more about Cliff
Ennico and other Creators Syndicate writers and cartoonists, visit our
Web page at www.creators.com
or visit succeedinginyourbusiness.com.
COPYRIGHT 2009 CLIFFORD R. ENNICO. DISTRIBUTED BY CREATORS SYNDICATE,
INC. Permission granted for use on DrLaura.com.
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