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How Safe Are Your E-Mail Address, Password?

Nov 26, 2003 1:07AM PST
Prevent Crafty Hackers From Getting Control Of Your Account

NEW YORK -- In our high-tech world, e-mail addresses and passwords are as commonplace as knowing your Social Security number -- you just know them. But what could happen if that information got into the wrong hands?

There are some crafty people out there who can find out your e-mail address -- and you might be unwittingly helping them.

Don Mays works on computers, and he's cautious about using the Internet for security reasons. So he was stunned when a friend told him she saw he was online when he wasn't. However, his America Online screen name was online without him knowing it.

"So I called the fraud department, and I got really upset," Mays said. "I said, 'Don't you want to know what's happening here? This guy can just get into your system from my sign on, and he's inside your system, and he is utilizing your system.'"

Mays figured his account was being used by a hacker who somehow managed to get into his account and probably the accounts of many others.

Continue reading the story at http://www.thekansascitychannel.com/technology/2666466/detail.html

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