Online Editor's Note: The event described below is actually identified by snopes.com as a hoax; however, the point is that such identity "theft" can easily happen if you willingly "give" information.

I recently received a report about a woman (we’ll call her Maggie) who was stalked by a convicted rapist who told her he knew her through mutual acquaintances online. He contacted her via instant message, seemed to know a lot about her and her friends and after a week or so, she told him her first name and phone number. She discovered that her friends didn’t know him and she became suspicious. Then one day he called her at her home saying they needed to talk. Maggie was really upset and asked him how he had really found her.

He told her that he had spotted her screen name on a “Forward” that one of her friends had sent to someone else and he thought her screen name was sexy. He then used the screen name of others on the list of forwards to acquaint himself with her and her friends. He also used the Member Directory at AOL to look up info about others on the list of forwards, so as not to look suspicious.

A few days later, Maggie received a 4 a.m. phone call from the man saying that he was in town to see a friend who lived 20 minutes from her house and wanted to meet her for coffee or breakfast. When Maggie told him she didn’t think it was a good idea, he became irate and hung up. She called him back at the number on her caller ID, and trying to scare him off told him that her husband had returned and they were reconciling and not to be so angry. His response was “You’re a lying b****, your husband is not there with you—you are alone!”

The sheriff’s office was called and a report made, then Maggie packed up and drove to her sister’s home. Fifteen or twenty minutes after she arrived, she got a phone call from the guy; he knew she’d called the sheriff and reported him; he knew where she was and he knew her sister and brother-in-laws names.

Maggie walked, ate, slept and breathed in constant fear until the man was finally arrested for stalking another woman who lived in another state.

YOU MUST, MUST, MUST remove addresses when forwarding those inspirational stories and cute messages AND YOU MUST, MUST, MUST use Blind Carbon Copy (BCC) for all but one person to whom you’re sending the email. If you have a list to send to, enter the list name in the BCC address box. Q1 on the Windows SIG page addresses a problem one person has had with deleting the forwarded addresses. If you have any questions about how to do this, come to the Windows SIG on the 4th Saturday and we’ll find the answers.

 AOL and SBC Technical Support Via Online Chat
I had occasion recently to help a student I was tutoring get help with her AOL. Jennah was online and we went to Help and saw that help was available 24/7 via online chat. We walked through it together, and Jennah and her AOL support person typed back and forth to each other until the problem was solved.

Last night, I discovered that SBC Yahoo also has free online chat service and I talked with a tech support person until we resolved the issue I was having with my email.

Mary Phillips, President