Warning!
PayPal E-mail Scam

Ask The Help Desk
How Do I Know If I'm Connected To A "Secure Server?"

Sites Of The Month
Great Sites To Check Out In December!

Short Tutorial
E-mailing Christmas Cards...Placing Images Into Your Christmas E-mail Letter

Dear Valued Customer

The holiday season provides a great opportunity to catch up with family and friends whom you haven't corresponded with for a while. The Internet is an ideal tool for accomplishing this goal. Check out the tutorial in this month's eNewsletter to find out how to place family photos within e-mail holiday greetings to your friends and family.

The goal of each of our monthly eNewsletters is to keep our subscribers informed regarding their Internet connection and to improve their Internet experience. To meet this goal, each monthly newsletter will usually contain information related to:

Warnings on a recent virus or e-mail hoax that may affect you

An update on new services and other local interests

An answer to a frequently asked Internet related question

Some fun, seasonal websites to check out

A short, step-by-step tutorial on an e-mail or browser related task

We think you'll find the information contained in this newsletter to be a valuable tool for enhancing your Internet experience. If, however, you'd prefer not to receive these bulletins on a monthly basis, click HERE.

To see what's inside this issue, take a look at the index to the left and thanks for reading!

- The Xecunet Team

Warning! - PayPal E-mail Scam

There are a couple of different versions of a "PayPal E-mail Scam" circulating around the Internet. (PayPal is an eBay owned company. It provides a method for any individual or business with an e-mail account to securely transfer funds to each other -- most notably when making purchases at eBay's online auction site.) Both PayPal e-mail scams fraudulently show PayPal as the sender of the e-mail messages.

In one version of the scam, the message within the fraudulent e-mail states that the recipient's PayPal account is going to close in five days if the recipient does not respond immediately. It urges the recipient to update his/her credit card information through an attached "secure application." When opening the attachment, a window (which includes a PayPal logo) appears and asks for credit card data and other financial information including the recipient's social security number, account password, bank account and PIN numbers, etc. Instead of going to PayPal, however, this information is sent to the scammers who then use the data for illegal activities.

In the other version of the scam, the e-mail message says that PayPal is doing routine online verification of information for security reasons and asks the recipient to click on a link to update the information. Again, the information goes to the scammers rather than PayPal.

For more information about this e-mail scam, details on how to protect yourself from the PayPal E-mail Scam or steps to take if you feel that you've been a victim of this e-mail scam, go to: http://www.paypal.com/cgi-bin/webscr?cmd=p/gen/email-security-outside.

Back to Top

Ask The Help Desk - How Do I Know If I'm Connected To A "Secure Server?"

Question: When I provide credit card information to a retail merchant online, is it really secure? Also, how do I know if I'm connected to a "secure server" when using my credit card to buy something online?

Answer: Both Microsoft Internet Explorer's and Netscape Navigator's (version 2.0 and newer) web browsers use Secure Sockets Layer (SSL) technology to encrypt transaction data (i.e. credit card transactions) before the information is sent over the Internet. SSL scrambles personal and credit card data thereby keeping it private during its transmission. When you logon to a secure server at an online merchant's site, the secure server communicates with your browser by sending encrypted (coded) information that only the secure server and your browser can read. The communication between the web page and your browser is normal, except that all information coming or going is now coded.

Encryption technology makes it extremely difficult for any third party intercepting credit card related communication to decode or decipher the message. If you are buying something online, make sure to place orders online only from those retail sites that provide ordering access through a secure server. Encryption technology is not 100% foolproof, but you probably have a better chance of getting ripped off by a sales clerk copying your credit card number at a convenience store than getting your information stolen over the Internet.

Here are a few things to look for to ensure that the merchant is utilizing a secure server before you proceed with an online purchase:

When you go to a secure site or secure web page, a warning dialog box will appear on your screen telling you that you are entering a secure site or page. Likewise, you will see a warning dialog box appear if you leave a secure page and go to an insecure website or web page. You may not see these warning boxes if you or someone who uses your computer has turned off this warning.

Look for an unbroken key or padlock at the bottom of your browser window when filling out your order online. This indicates that the merchant utilizes software that allows the transaction to be encrypted using SSL technology prior to its transmission.

Check the URL in your browser's address or location window. The web address will begin with "https://" rather than just "http://" if your transaction is secure. The "s" stands for secure.

If the online merchant does not have a secure server, it is recommended that you place your order over the telephone rather than transmitting your credit card information online. When ordering by phone, remember to always ask for the customer service representative's name and obtain a confirmation order number.

Back to Top

Great Sites To Check Out This Month

Great Christmas Recipes
http://ChristmasRecipe.com/ - Are you looking for some new recipe ideas for this holiday season? How about 845 recipe ideas? ChristmasRecipe.com contains over 845 Christmas recipes -- all categorized for easy searching. Each recipe also contains reviews by people who have tried the recipes along with resulting ratings. The site also includes a handy "Top Ten Recipes" section.

Holiday Craft Ideas
http://MarthaStewart.com/ - Let's get serious. Nobody's got better holiday craft ideas than Martha Stewart. Head to her homepage and click on either the "holiday" link or the "craft" link for step-by-step instructions on making wreaths, wraps and bows, holiday candles and soaps, kids' activities and projects, crocheted snowflakes, sweater stockings, gift tags, Christmas cards and more.

Find Out What Any Acronym Stands For ASAP
http://AcronymSearch.com/ - When someone uses an acronym at the next holiday dinner party that you attend and you don't know what the acronym means, do what you always do. Nod approvingly as if you know exactly what the person is talking about. Next, however, excuse yourself, slip into the den, hop online (never mind that it's not your house), and head to AcronymSearch.com. The site provides the meanings to over 48,000 acronyms. Now you can head back to the party armed with a few ambiguous acronyms of your own to use.

New Movie Release This Month - "Peter Pan"
http://PeterPanMovie.net/ - The much anticipated release of the new "Peter Pan" movie is scheduled for December 25th. Are you looking for a sneak preview? The official movie site includes a video theatrical trailer and a teaser trailer. You'll need to have either Quicktime or Windows Media Player on your computer to view the videos. "Peter Pan" is rated PG because of adventure action sequences and peril.

Mushers -- Get Your Sled Dogs Ready!
http://DogSled.com/ - If you haven't registered your sled dog team for the upcoming Iditarod, it's already too late. (Registration was due December 1st for the March 04 event.) But it's not too late to either participate or watch a variety of sled dog events across North America -- and the globe. This site, subtitled "All the adventure, none of the frostbite," provides race schedules, results, video clips, audio clips and photos. The "Kidzone" section includes a Musher Dictionary so you'll know when to "Gee" and when to "Haw" during the next race.

Back to Top

Short Tutorial - E-mailing Christmas Cards...Placing Images Into Your Christmas E-mail Letter

Sending Christmas greetings via e-mail is an easy (and inexpensive) method of spreading holiday cheer to family and friends. Attaching a family photo to the e-mail is a great idea; however, some recipients may be hesitant about opening e-mail attachments, even from friends, because of the viruses and worms floating around the Web. What to do? Why not create your own e-mail Christmas card by pasting images (family vacation photos, for instance) into the actual message pane of your e-mail message rather than as an attachment? It's easy to do but try to use pictures with a small file size as using large picture files will result in slow download times for dial-up connections. When using Outlook Express on a Windows operating system, follow the steps below:

Open Outlook Express.

Create a new message and prepare it for sending by addressing it, giving it a title (subject) and composing a message.

Click your cursor arrow at the location where you'd like to place the photo within your message. Click on "Insert" which is located on the Message Menu Bar. Select "Picture" from the resulting drop-down menu.

When the Picture Dialog Box appears, click the "Browse" button to locate the picture you want to send.

Click on the picture's location to select it. Click "Open" to return to the Picture Dialog Box.

Select from various options to alter the attributes on your photo, i.e. layout, alignment, border thickness, etc. You do not need to select them all.

Describe the picture by typing text into the "Alternative Text" field. This will allow the e-mail recipient to at least see a description of the photograph if he/she has a "text only" e-mail program.

Click "OK" once you've completed your settings.

Complete your message and click "Send."

For Netscape 4.8 on Windows...

Open Netscape Navigator 4.8.
Create a new message and prepare it for sending by addressing it, giving it a title (subject) and composing a message.
Click your cursor arrow at the location where you'd like to place the photo within your message. Click on "Insert" which is located on the Message Menu Bar. Select "Image" from the resulting drop-down menu.
When the Image Properties dialog box appears, click the Image tab. Click on the "Choose Image" button. The Choose Image File dialog box will appear.
Click your cursor arrow on the small triangle in the "Look in" field and browse until you find your picture. When you've found the picture you want to send, click on the picture's icon to select it. Click "Open" to return to the Image Properties dialog box.
Select from various options to alter the attributes on your photo. Options include text alignment and wrapping, spacing around the picture, etc. You do not need to select any or all of them.
If you want to describe the picture for "text only" e-mail programs, click on the "Alt.Text/Low Res" button. The Alternative Image Properties dialog box will appear. Type your description of the picture in the field provided and click "OK."
Click "OK" once you've completed your settings.
Complete your message and click "Send."

Back to Top

We hope you found this newsletter to be informative. It's our way of keeping you posted on the happenings at our shop. If, however, you'd prefer not to receive these bulletins on a monthly basis, click HERE.

Thanks for your business!

Best regards,

Dallas Kincaid

Operations Manager

©2003 Cornerstone Publishing Group Inc.

Trademarks: All brand names and product names used in this eNewsletter are trade names, service marks, trademarks or registered trademarks of their respective owners.