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November 21, 2005
Tis the Season for the eCard
But are they safe?
In this season, The Season, where all things greeting card are exchanged,
we were asked, “Are eCards really safe?”
eCards are environmentally friendly, sparing trees & saving landfills;
they save us time and money; and most importantly, allow us to make the
folks we care about smile. But are they safe?
Yes Virginia eCards are safe, but there are bad people out there and
e-mail is being used for nefarious reasons and sure people have used
the good name of the wonderful eCard to lure people into their traps.
Some people fear using eCards, feeling they are risking downloading a
virus, spyware, adware or some other unwanted evil. Let's look at the
facts as well as tips for avoiding all e-mail troubles.
Fear #1: The eCard Bears Unwelcome Gifts
The Truth: Reputable eCard sites host the images, sounds and designs on
their own servers. This means your computer isn't downloading anything,
just playing files on a webpage.
Repeat: Legitimate ecards do not contain attachments.
Safety Tips: While we can't tell you the urls or names of all the bad
sites, a good rule of thumb is this: If you get a pop-up requesting you
to name ('save as') a file &/or select where to put a file, click
'cancel' or close and go no further.
Don't try to save an eCard for viewing later. Most sites protect their
eCards for copyright reasons, but this also protects you. Currently
BirthdayAlarm.com saves a history of all ecards, so the cards are always
available to play again later. This option means there is no need to
worry about saving them, along with anything undesirable, to your computer.
But don't panic when you see a file loading. A taskbar showing
you the progress of a loading file is not the same thing as
downloading a file. (You will not be asked to 'save as' or
provide any locations for saving the file when files load.)
Fear #2: eCard Companies are Phishing
The Truth: Premium e-greeting companies like BirthdayAlarm.com do
request billing information from recipients. And most offer at least a 30 day
free trial to their service. Payment details are required.
Safety Tip: Like offline, know the companies you are doing business with.
Check the About sections. Legitimate companies publish contact
information which includes a brick and mortar address. Check them out.
Contact the local Better Business Bureau.
Fear #2: eCards Are Tools For Spammers
The Truth: Reputable companies, eCard or otherwise, do not sell, trade or give-away email addresses or other information.
Safety Tip: View the company's privacy policy for assurances prior to agreeing to any site policies - even the viewing of the ecard.
Working With Email Accounts
As senders, we often use our Hotmail, Yahoo! or other free email accounts to send our ecards. We do this out of the fear that the ecard company will spam us or send an abundance of 'newsletters' or other unwanted emails. Or perhaps, this is to shield your personal doings from your workplace or another reason (heck, on the Web we all have more than one identity - so I won't judge you!).
However, our friends and family often do not know these other email addresses. They become suspicious of these emails and are quick to hit delete. And many email filters may 'junk', block or otherwise mistreat emails from 'unknown' senders, preventing your ecard from even being seen by your recipient.
Give your friends and family members the chance to find your e-greeting - send it from a known email address. And use credible e-greeting card websites.
General Safety Tips:
Do not open e-greetings from people you don't know. If you receive an eCard from an unknown email address which has a name you recognize, email your friend or family member at the email address you do know, and ask them to verify if they sent you an e-greeting from another email account.
Preview a link's Web address before you click it. If the link doesn't show an address, move your mouse pointer over the link without clicking it and the Web address should appear on the bottom bar of your Web browser. If the address doesn't seem legit, don't click the link.
Don't accept an end-user agreement without reading the fine print first. Oh, sure, it's tedious, but you might inadvertently agree to install spyware, adware or something else you don't want.
Don't accept "e-card viewer plug-in" - even if it has a certificate that looks convincing. Most ecards are viewable without additional plug-ins.
When in doubt, do a quick Google search for url's, plug-in names and other details to avoid scams. If it's a legitimate eCard, it will be there after a few minutes of quick searching.
Keep your anti-virus and spyware protection programs running. If
you did make a mistake, you'll have better chances of avoiding the worst
case scenarios.
Posted by photocartoonist at November 21, 2005 11:52 AM