I think it’s pretty safe to say that most of us don’t like spam and junk email in our inboxes. I say ‘most of us’ because apparently enough people still buy products advertised in spam email or follow-up on the latest hot stock tips to make sending spam a profitable operation for spammers. So, while that’s still going on, the rest of us will have to figure out ways to deal with it.

Many of us look at our ISPs (internet service providers) and expect them to save us from the spam avalanche. Unfortunately, I’m not so sure it’s the ISP’s problem to begin with. I see it more as a case of ‘your ISP won’t help you if you don’t help yourself first’. Why do I say that? Because in my opinion we, the internet users, are often too eager to give up our email address to anybody who’ll ask for it.

Here’s a simple scenario: you’re online browsing and you come across a site that promises you a free e-book on a topic that interests you or maybe free access to a members-only area that contains some information that you might actually want. What’s the catch? You have to sign-up for the free information with your email address because they’ll send you everything you need via email. So you happily give them your email address, get the promised information, and then a week later you notice that the level of spam email in your inbox is higher than normal. Coincidence? Most likely not…

Now, I’m not saying here that every site out there that gives away stuff via email will necessarily give away or sell your email address to spammers. I’m sure there are many legitimate sites out there that have the proper privacy policies in place and actually follow them. That’s not the point - the point is that I should not even have to care about this if I’m careful. Whenever I come across such sites and I want the info they have I don’t even bother trying to see if they have a privacy policy in place or if they appear to be a legitimate site with a good history. That’s not important - I’m not there to enter in a business relationship with them by paying for a product. I’d probably be more careful in that case. They want to give something away for free via email and I’d like to obtain that without compromising my email address.

What options do I have? Here are two quick ideas that will save you from a lot of possible spam in the future:

1. Use a separate email address
This is a very simple approach since it’s so easy to get an email address with one of the many free email services such as Yahoo, Hotmail and even Gmail. When I come across a site that needs my email to give me the promised information I just give them this separate email address instead of my main one. Once I submit the request the web sites are usually pretty good about responding right away via email so I can quickly check if I received what I was looking for. It doesn’t matter to me how much other junk mail gets collected in this particular inbox - I don’t have to deal with it. I only check it when I know I’ll receive something I’m interested in and that’s that. Spammers can send spam to that email address all they want - it won’t really affect me since I won’t have to sit there every day looking at it.

2. Use a disposable email address
This approach is similar to the one above but it can sometimes be even simpler. What do I mean by a disposable email address? There are free services out there that create an email address for you on the spot without you actually creating an account, having to remember a password and all that other work. It’s a quick temporary email address that you can use right away to receive that one email you’re waiting for and then you can just forget about it. Here are two such services:

• Mailinator
• 2Prong

So there you have it - if you want your email address to stay private and not fall in the wrong hands then be careful who you give it out to. Once it’s out there, it’s much harder to clean and control what comes to your inbox - a classic case of ‘prevention is easier than treatment’.

Filed under: Computers, Productivity, Security | No Comments »

Debit cards and credit cards are the two most popular methods of payment for online purchases. The main difference between a debit card and a credit card is quite simple: debit cards are usually directly tied to a checking account from where funds are withdrawn right away whereas credit cards allow consumers to spend money they may or may not have with the promise to repay later.

Many people who want to control their expenses prefer to use debit cards since debit cards won’t allow them to spend more money than they actually have in their bank account. I applaud that idea - it is great that there are still people concerned with their spending level. However, it is my opinion based on some research I did recently that debit cards, especially when used for online purchases or in places where you can’t directly see the person handling your card, may have some serious disadvantages when compared to credit cards.

1. Debit cards are not exactly without fees
Many people who use debit cards do so thinking that this way they’ll get away from the finance charges that accompany credit cards with running balances. Debit cards have their own fees that can sometimes catch people by surprise. One such fee would be the overdraft fee. Consumers sometimes wrongly assume that a debit card will not run into overdraft issues since it’s tied to a physical checking account. That’s only true though if you actually have overdraft protection on your bank account - a service that some banks actually charge for. If you don’t have that, then the bank will usually be more than happy to let a transaction go through even though you don’t have enough funds and then later they’ll hit you with the overdraft fee.

2. The problem with holds
When certain purchases are made, especially in the travel industry such as car rentals or hotel reservations, the merchant’s policy usually is to place holds or authorize enough funds on the card to make sure that the purchase can actually be covered. Sometimes these holds are for more funds than the actual final expense. As far as I can tell the same applies whether the payment is made via credit or debit but the problem can potentially be more severe for the consumer when debit cards are used. On a credit card, these holds or authorizations are made against the credit limit on the card - usually quite a large amount - but on a debit card they go directly against the real balance in the checking account. These holds can sometimes cause debit card users to run into the overdraft problem mentioned above.

3. Liability limits
Debit cards look so much like credit cards that it’s hard to imagine that the protection and liability rules are so different between them. Credit cards usually limit a card user’s liability to the first $50 of a fraudulent transaction and there are some card issuers who take that down to $0 liability in an effort to attract business. Well, that’s not true at all when it comes to debit cards. Remember, debit cards work directly with a checking account from where money is debited in real time, not based on a promise to pay in the future. Once the money is out of the account it’s much harder to get it back in there should there be a problem with the transaction. As a matter of fact liability limits on debit cards seem to increase with the length of time until a fraudulent transaction is reported. If such a transaction goes unnoticed for a few weeks you could be liable for $500 or even more.

There is a lot more to be said here on the subject of liability - if you’d like to read more on this it’s good to know that credit cards and debit cards are covered at the federal level under two separate pieces of legislation, thus the resulting differences - the Fair Credit Billing Act deals with credit cards while the Electronic Fund Transfer Act covers debit cards.

All this is not meant to scare and discourage people from using debit cards. When used properly and in the right circumstances they are a great payment method but remember this: just because something looks like a credit card and feels like a credit card it doesn’t mean it follows the same rules as a credit card. Be informed - check with your bank and see what their policies are on the debit card they issued you. If you don’t feel comfortable with their policies then stay away from debit cards - paying with a credit card can be just as good for controlling spending, assuming you’ll pay the balance in full each time.

If you’re disciplined enough to pay your credit cards in full each month then you should probably stay away from debit cards - they offer you no advantages and enough disadvantages to make you think twice about using them.

Filed under: Finance, Security | No Comments »

I’d like to present to you my favorite reference site on the web: HowStuffWorks.com

I still remember the time when I stumbled across it sometime back in the year 2000, way before Wikipedia appeared on the scene. I couldn’t believe that somebody would take the time to put together all that great information. It was a great resource back then and it’s still one of the best today. If you have a curious mind then this site should be on your short list of favorites.

One interesting note about it: it was founded in 1998 by a university professor named Marshall Brain who was the main article writer for quite a while…

Filed under: Family friendly, General Interest Links, Reference | No Comments »