Protect your computer from e-mail spam and “phishing”
 & Just like you receive junk mail in your mailbox at home, you’ll find yourself receiving a lot of spam in your email account. Generally speaking, the longer you have had an active account, the more spam you will receive at that account (since it has had more time to get on lists of email addresses).If the email account in question is your CC email, then you are in luck! Colorado College has purchased a highly effective spam / virus filter called Postini – anyone with a CC account is automatically signed up for this feature free of charge. Although it may occasionally (though quite rarely, in my experience) block legitimate emails, it is very effective in blocking spam messages. You can also block and allow specific email addresses, which gives you more control over what should and should not be blocked.
If the email account in question is not your CC email, then your best bet is to check it through an email program such as Outlook Express – these programs usually have some spam filtering capabilities (though they aren’t as effective as Postini). See the help menu in the application for more information about how to set up a filter. If you’re interested in seeing some amazing statistics on spam, check out Postini’s stats page. Click Here to skip the Postini instructions and read about e-mail scams Go to the following website: https://login.postini.com and enter your CC e-mail address and Postini password. If you are a new user and have not yet received your Postini password, or if you have forgotten your password, please Click Here for instructions.
By default, your junk e-mail filter will be turned on, but the on / off button can be found in the “Junk Email Settings” link:
Click the “ON” or “OFF” buttons here to toggle the filter – we highly recommend never turning it off:
Now you can pick how lenient or aggressive you want the filter to be in the various categories. There are several filter categories in your Postini account, each with different levels. By far the most important category is “Bulk Email.” We recommend setting the bulk email filter to the 2nd level to start with (it should be set there by default), and the other filters only at the 1st level (as pictured below). If spam still slips through regularly, adjust the bulk filter setting up one level and then see how it goes. Keep making this adjustment until the spam stops or is very rare – only increase the levels of the other filters if it’s needed after the bulk filter is at the maximum level. Once you’ve set the filter aggressiveness, be sure to click “Save Changes”:
At this point, you are done setting up your filter. However, while we’re in Postini anyway, let’s look at a few more features available to you. At the bottom section of the screen, you should see a list of “Approved Senders.” Right now, that list will be blank, but you can add to it at any time by entering an email address and clicking “save to list.” You only need to add an address to the approved senders list if you notice some of the mail you want to receive is getting blocked. Adding any e-mail address with our domain name (Name@ColoradoCollege.edu) is not necessary as CC e-mail is not filtered through Postini – and if you do you probably open yourself up for e-mail spoofing. Right next to that is the “Blocked Senders” list. Add e-mail addresses to this list by typing them in and clicking “Save to List.” The only time you need to use the Blocked Senders list is if you still get spam from a certain address, even through the filter.
Let’s take a quick look at the “Message Center” by clicking the link all the way up by the top of the screen:
Right now, your message center will most likely be empty. However, if you are expecting an e-mail and do not receive it, then it’s possible Postini blocked it — you can log in to your message center to check. It will list every e-mail it has blocked in the past 2 weeks (after that point, it will delete the e-mails). If you don’t find anything you want, then there’s nothing you need to do, just log out and leave. If you do see a message that you’d like to read, click the checkbox next to the message(s) and then “Deliver” to your Inbox:
You’ll see the following dialogue box asking if you’d like to approve future messages from this sender (if you check the “approve sender” box, it will add that address to your approved senders list automatically. Make your selections and click “Continue”:
Once you’ve clicked “Continue”, the messages you selected will appear in your inbox as normal and you will be ready to log off and exit Postini. Look in the upper right corner of the page and click “Log Out”:
Once you see the following message, you can close the browser window — you’re done!
If you can’t wait to learn more, we encourage you to visit the Postini User Instructions page: If you have any questions please review the Postini FAQ page: You can help Postini improve the quality of its spam filters by forwarding any spam you receive through the filter to spam@postini.com & Recent E-mail Scams
To find the most recent, reported e-mail scams, go to MillerSmiles.co.uk
& Tips for protecting yourself from e-mail scams Most junk e-mail is more or less harmless, it’s just irritating. However, with the advent of online banking / bill paying, etc. there has been a marked increase in the number of “phishing” scams that go out.
Some of these, such as the common letter from a supposed member of a wealthy Nigerian family asking you to hold his or her money, are easy to spot and ignore. Others, however, are more shrewdly constructed and can be difficult to distinguish from legitimate e-mail. Here are a few rules of thumb to follow in order to protect yourself:
A good first place to check to see if an email you’ve received is a scam is the MillerSmiles.co.uk website feed (above). Last revised on 06/25/08 |
