by Eden Imbeau, Gage Residence Advisor

We have all received spam email probing us to donate money to a charity, enlarge portions of ourselves, or click on this really awesome link that the sender has found specifically for you.

At least once a day I am a victim of such received emails but have never considered that the sender could be a victim themself until my email address was compromised by some unknown source.

Passing a friend in the Gage Commonsblock I was notified that I had sent her spam over the weekend. Horrified, I asked her what it was about, how this possibly could have happened, and who else I had sent it to. Immediately after checking my email account I found that I was blocked from signing in to my inbox due to the spam that I had sent EVERYONE on my contact list.

After jumping through hoops to access my account I assessed the damage. When I say that I sent an email regarding ‘phallus enlargement’ to everyone in my address book I’m not exaggerating. Checking my Sent box, the list includes and is not limited to: the Mayor of Squamish, my High School teachers, University professors, my parents, past employers, current colleagues, friends, and past boyfriends – Many of which responded questioning why I was sending them this information.

Searching the internet for answers to my questions as to why this happened to me I have concluded:

1. This is not your fault, email fraud can happen to anyone!

2. Change your password as soon as you can; mix capital and lower case letters with numbers ex. Walter180Gage7Rocks.

3. When you set up your account and are asked a personal question in case you need to retrieve your password in the future, use an answer that only you know and cannot be easily guessed.

4. There is little you can do besides thank the art of email fraud for allowing you to practice the virtue of humility.

– tricky tricky, try to hijack my email now!

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