On February 3rd at 6:54 pm an email was sent to me saying I requested password help for my Sam’s Club account.  No, I didn’t make that request.  Just two minutes later another email went out confirming ‘my’ purchase of two cameras from Sam’s Club to be sent to Chicago.  I live in Dallas.

I was fortunate enough to see these emails only an hour after the transaction happened.  I immediately went to my Sam’s account, but the password had been changed.  I then checked my bank account online and saw a transaction in the amount of $1,293.67 from Sam’s Club.  It was too late to reach them (I tried), but I did reach someone at my bank’s 24 hour line for stolen cards.  The transaction was immediately put on hold.

Of course, my card had to be cancelled, which means I have to notify everyone who has that number for a recurring payment.  Plus I couldn’t  access those funds from my bank account until the matter was resolved. 

The next morning I called Sam’s Club to cancel that card and stop the shipment of the two cameras.  It took 5 calls to get to the right person.  But Julie in Chicago didn’t get the two cameras.

This is identity theft. I don’t know exactly how it happened, but I believe it was a professional hit. The delivery address may just be a place where stolen goods are shipped.  Electronics and cameras are great for that.  The ‘forgot password’ email would give the thief an opportunity to use a program (called a packet sniffer) that tracks and reads specific emails just to get password information. It wasn’t casting about for whatever might bite, but after a specific, accessible target to access the account and place an order.  It’s possible that initially only my Sam’s account was compromised, and ordered from Sam’s using my card on file.  However both accounts were compromised in the end and had to be cancelled.

I asked a lot of questions about Internet safety and banking and online accounts. I’m fortunate that my husband Mike is extremely knowledgeable about Internet technology and what can and can’t be done to compromise email.

The person I spoke with at Sam’s told me almost no one calls to stop a stolen order from shipping.  My taking this action made it easy for Sam’s to void the charge to my bank account, and the funds were released back to me sooner than they might have been.  Catching the transaction so soon made the entire unfortunate and inconvenient situation much less painful and easier to resolve.

I’ll still order online at secure sites, and I’ll continue to check my email and monitor my online bank accounts, especially when my intuition tells me to check things at odd hours like it did February 3rd.

Then last fall we started seriously checking out what’s available.  First the Kindle, then the big screen Kindle DX.  Several lesser known names.  Then Barnes and Noble’s introduced the Nook.  They missed their Christmas target date (that had to hurt).  The Nook has some very interesting features like highlighting.  For me that’s huge.  Then I discovered the Kindle has a cut and paste function that can string together what I would’ve highlighted.  That sounds very useful!

Then Apple introduced the iPad eReader with incredibly cool features.  Interestingly enough, the only negative comments I’ve heard seem to be Mac fans who want the iPad to be a full functioning computer rather than a really cool eReader.   If those comments drive Apple to further tweak the iPad, great!  Most non-Mac fans think the iPad is totally awesome.  A big brother to the iPhone.

That’s where we find ourselves.  I just got an iPhone last October (birthday gift from my iPhone owner husband).  Until then, a cell phone was just a convenient way to communicate when I wasn’t near my land line.  I had text messaging, but I didn’t have Internet access, email from my cell or any other techie features.  Of course, Mike did, and he’s always been up on all the latest and greatest tech toys, looking for fancy cell phones that did everything but laundry.  When my son got an iPhone, Mike checked it out and had to have one.  My son gave my daughter-in-law an iPhone for her birthday, so it was only fitting that I should get one too.  I took a power leap into communication and technology on the go.  Do not try to pry it from of my fingers.

Until the iPhone I wasn’t sure if I’d really use an ebook reader since I was still clutching my highlighter.   I got a Bible ap for my iPhone and discovered I enjoy reading that way.  The ap I use lets me bookmark passages to a growing list of my ‘highlights’.  An ebook reader will just make it easier than reading from a  2" x3" screen.  So I’m doing my due diligence on the features of all of the eReaders to see which one will best fit my wants and needs.  Mike’s already got his hand raised to say ‘I want the iPad.’ 

Here come the Scams.  I started writing this because I ’m now getting emails saying the iPad is great and I can have a chance to get one for free.  You might get those emails too.  Don’t fall for it.  The free chance will cost you!  Here’s the tell-tale sentence:  ’For simply completing a brief survey, and fulfilling all offer requirements, you could be on your way to a new Apple iPad! Participate now before this offer runs out.’  ‘Fulfilling all offer requirements’ means they probably will be showing you lots of things to buy to keep your name in a very large hat for drawing (if they ever really do a drawing).  The loophole, of course, is that if you’re supposed to get 3 from this page and 3 from that page (yes offers like that are real), and you find 4 on one and 2 on another or don’t want 6, then you simply don’t get entered into the ‘chance to win’.  But they get to keep your information already submitted.

Right now the Apple iPod is hot, so that’s the hook they use to get you to buy stuff.  Oh yes, they also add your information to a list that gets sold to a lot of other lists.   I entered my name and a unique, different email address one time only for something online and discovered that list has been sold and resold so many times it took nearly three years to unsubscribe from them all.  Sometimes these lists (where you originally entered your contact information)  are sold to List Brokers who then sell them several times to people buying leads. 

Not all offers are scams. Just beware of the ones that require you to accept other offers to win the original item.  Read the email offer completely and don’t feel obligated to buy things you didn’t intend to get.  You might also wind up on a lot of email lists offering even more ’stuff’. 

It can be tricky to deal with a spam filter, especially if your product or service has key terms similar to those used by shady marketers. No one wants their medical newsletter binned along with the "cheap pharmaceuticals" ads, after all! So, what can you do? The first step is looking at how you got the email addresses and the types of information you’re sending out. Using terms that are similar to spam messages,or collecting emails without an opt in is sure to get you marked as undesirable.

Remember that customers and potential customers are more interested in information than in your sales talk. So stick to including real information, and keep the promotional stuff to a minimum. This will increase your conversion rate, as well as the rate of emails that escape the spam filter.

So, what should you look for? First, make sure you’re not including trigger words, phrases, or other information in your email. For instance, if you include the words "click here now", you’re email is likely to be treated as spam. Most spam filters using this term to filter emails get only about a one percent false postitive rate. Opt out phrases such as "to be removed"  and "unsubscribe" are other flags for a spam filter. 

Even text colors in HTML email, such as FF0000 (that’s HTML for bright red) may get flagged.  Avoid multiple fonts and sizes, and never send an attachment unless it’s been requested.

If you’ve taken a look at your newsletter and you’re worried about it, post it online. Then, give your mailing list a link to the rest of the newsletter. The ones who are interested will click through, and the email won’t get banned. Avoid mentioning gifts, special offers, toll free numbers, and similar things, as well. It doesn’t take much to do it – just reword the most common phrases uniquely. ‘Free’ can become ‘Bonus’ or ‘No Cost’.  Certainly you can use those words in a website, but be careful when creating an email campaign or newsletter.   Weight loss and MLM marketers may face special challenges. 

Use an appropriate, accurate, short subject line that doesn’t include any of the standard spam phrases. "Hello, friend" is a quick way to get ignored. Don’t use the recipient’s name or email address in the subject line.  This used to help open rates, but now the spam filters are more sensitive to it.  Also avoid common spam terms in the first paragraph. Spell carefully, and use the right capitalization and sentence structure. Display your full name, not your email address in the "from" field. Don’t use all capital letters (it’s considered yelling at your reader) or all lower case, poor punctuation, or just your first name unless you want to be flagged.

Make sure your partners in joint ventures and cross promotions know about this, too. After all, someone else’s list could kill your letter quickly. Your carefully crafted email could get spam filtered by someone else’s "free consultation."

So I decided to start over. 

New look, new posts.  I actually took down the other posts and did a total redesign.  My goal is to share information about working online, Internet tips, cool tools, and other success strategies, online and offline. 

I’ve already posted one new article about how to avoid having your emails get caught up in spam filters.  I’ve been successfully writing autoresponder email campaigns since 2002, and it’s amazing how common words and seemingly basic information can flag your email as spam.  In this case, the ‘web’ isn’t just interconnected sites but the spam filter web that can catch the good email with the bad.

But there are steps you can take to get your email into the intended inbox.  Sometimes a simple word substitution will make all the difference.  Read the article below to learn more, and check back often for more tips and information. 

Feel free to share your comments. Thanks!

Marian