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Greetings from Polar's E-Connections Team
We think
you'll find the information contained in this newsletter to be a valuable
tool for enhancing your Internet experience. If, however, you'd prefer not to
receive these bulletins on a monthly basis, click HERE. |
E-Mail
Scam - Bogus Coca-Cola
Sweepstakes Promises Car and Cash
It may look like an e-mail
from Coca-Cola but it's definitely not "The Real Thing." There's an
e-mail in circulation, allegedly from a Hong Kong-based Coca-Cola sales and
marketing manager, that promotes a sweepstakes to win a Mercedes-Benz ML Jeep
convertible and $800,000 cash. The problem? There is
no such sweepstakes and there is no such car as a Mercedes-Benz ML Jeep
convertible. It's a phishing expedition, using the
trusted Coca-Cola brand as bait, designed to obtain personal and financial
information from victims.
It used to be that such hoaxes only hijacked the names of banking institutions
or services like PayPal and eBay. But
now non-financial consumer brands, such as the soft drink giant, are being used
without permission by online scammers. On their website, the Coca-Cola
Company states they are "... in no way associated with these e-mails or
programs. We are not a sponsor and our name and trademarks are used here
without permission."
If you receive an e-mail like the one described above, you have a couple of
options. You can do nothing and simply delete the message. (Do not reply to it
or unsubscribe.) Or you can report the suspicious e-mail to the Federal Trade
Commission (FTC) at http://www.ftc.gov.
As always, you need to be aware of the telltale signs of phishing.
According to PhishTank.com, a collaborative clearinghouse for data and information
about phishing on the Internet, look for the
following signs:
- Generic greeting that doesn't use your name
- Link to a website that doesn't start with
"https" (The "s" stands for secure.)
- Request for personal information like account numbers
- Sense of urgency that pressures you to act quickly
2 BIG
Freebee's - From Polar In
January!!
Think 2006 went fast? Make
2007 go even faster with High Speed Internet Services
from Polar. Sign up for High Speed Internet Services before January 31, 2007
and receive FREE Installation.....a $125 value! Some restrictions apply. Call
Polar at 1-800-284-7222 to get in on this great offer.
While you're on the phone....ask about our new SecureIT
Services. SecureIT is only $4.95 per month and much
more user-friendly than a boxed solution from a retailer. Sign up by January
31, 2007 and we'll give you a FREE PC Clean Up with your Installation - a $9.95
value!
SecureIT Services
- Automatic installation of tested Microsoft Security
patches
- Anti-virus protection from Symantec
- Proactive protection with automatic updates, scans,
and removal of spyware/adware
- Integrated pop-up blocker
- Automated disk maintenance and optimization
- 24 x 7 free technical support
- Superior protection to off-the-shelf boxed solutions
from retailers
For more
information....call Polar - your FULL service Internet provider - at
1-800-284-7222 or go to www.thinkpolar.com.
Ask
The Help Desk - Why Do
I Receive Red X's Within Empty Boxes In Some E-mail Messages?
Question: Why do I sometimes receive
e-mail messages that contain an empty box with a red "X" within the
message pane rather than a picture? My friends are having the same problem.
Answer: Graphics and photos contained within an e-mail message are
often not "stored" within the e-mail message itself but rather on a
remote Web server (computer). If the message you receive is in an HTML format
(supposed to have graphics or photos as part of the message) and a little box
with a red "X" shows up instead of the image, there may be a broken
connection somewhere between the image link within the e-mail message and the
remote Web server where the image is actually stored.
What causes a broken connection? There could be a number of reasons including:
- A typo by the person who keyed in the Web address of
the image's server. When this occurs, the request for the image goes to a
server location where no image exists. It is similar to looking for a home
at
- Something on the Web server changed before you
downloaded the e-mail. The graphic was eliminated, its name changed, or it
was stored in a different folder, which changed its path.
- A power outage occurred somewhere between your
computer and the location of the image's Web server.
- You've downloaded your e-mail and then closed your
Internet connection to review your messages. If images within any of your
incoming e-mail messages are stored at a remote server location, your
computer will not be able to access them since you are no longer connected
to the Internet.
- Newer versions of Microsoft e-mail client software
(i.e. Outlook Express, Outlook, and Entourage) block graphics from
appearing automatically in HTML e-mail messages and, of course, the red
boxes show up in their place. (Click on "Download Pictures" at
the top of the e-mail and the pictures will appear.) Note: Different
e-mail clients and Web browsers use different symbols for a broken graphic
link. For instance, Apple's Safari Web browser uses a blue box with a
question mark symbol.
Great
Sites To Check Out This Month
What's Your Health
Risk?
http://www.yourdiseaserisk.harvard.edu - One way to take better care of your health in 2007 is
to educate yourself about your disease risks. This site, developed over the
past ten years by the Harvard Center for Cancer Prevention, can help you
discover your risk of developing five important diseases — cancer, diabetes,
heart disease, osteoporosis, and stroke. Simply answer questions about your
health, background, and lifestyle with easy-to-use interactive tools and get
personalized tips for preventing disease. Knowledge is power and Your Disease Risk
gives you the knowledge you need to make smarter, healthier choices.
Track The Travels Of $10s And $20s
http://WheresGeorge.com - Ever wondered where your paper money goes after it
leaves your wallet at the checkout counter? Well a guy by the name of Hank Eskin was so curious that he started a website in 1998
called WheresGeorge.com so he and others
could track the travels of
Stargazing
http://seeing-stars.com/Awards/ -
Give It A Try
http://justgive.org - If one of your New Year's resolutions is to expand
your charitable giving, give this unique site a try. JustGive
is a nonprofit organization whose mission is to connect people with the
charities and causes they care about and to increase overall giving. They'll
help you find the charities most meaningful to you from more than 1,000,000
nonprofits. You can also buy a charity gift certificate, start a charity
wedding registry, track your donations, and get a tax summary at the end of the
year.
Resolutions Resource
http://firstgov.gov/Citizen/Topics/New_Years_Resolutions.shtml -
Let's face it — most of us make similar New Year's resolutions year after year,
from the ever-popular health goals of losing weight or quitting smoking to the
financially motivated ones like paying off debt or getting a better job. This
Web portal provides handy information to help you succeed this year with 13 of
the most common resolutions. All the information and ideas you need to develop
your self-improvement plans are right here. (The hard part is simply following
through on the work.) Good luck!
Short
Tutorial - Attaching
Files (Attachments) To E-mail Messages
Not sure how to attach
files to e-mail messages? Follow the steps below and you'll be a pro in no
time!
Adding Attachments Using Outlook Express 6 On
Windows XP SP2
- With Outlook Express open, create a new e-mail
message. Prepare it for sending by filling in the recipient's address, the
subject, and the body of your message.
- Click your cursor arrow on the "Attach"
button in the toolbar. (It looks like a paper clip.) The "Insert
Attachment" dialog box will appear. (Alternately, you can click on
"Insert" in the menu bar and select "File Attachment"
from the drop-down menu to open the "Insert Attachment" dialog
box.)
- Click on the drop-down arrow next to the
"Look-in" field and select the directory where the file you want
to attach is located.
- Once the file you want to attach shows up in the main
part of the window, click on it to highlight it. (Hold the shift key down
while clicking to highlight multiple files.) Then click the
"Attach" button.
- The file you selected to attach should now show up in an
"Attach" field below the "Subject" line field. If you
want to attach additional files to the same e-mail, begin with Step 1
again. Click on the "Send" button to mail the message with the
attachment(s).
Adding
Attachments Using Thunderbird 1.5 On Windows XP SP2
And Mac OS X 10.4
- With Thunderbird open, create a new e-mail message.
Prepare it for sending by filling in the recipient's address, the subject,
and the body of your message.
- Click your cursor arrow on the "Attach"
button in the toolbar. (It looks like a paper clip.) The "Attach
File(s)" dialog box will appear.
- Browse to the file you would like to attach by
clicking on the drop-down arrow next to the "Look-in" field.
Select the directory where the file you want to attach is located.
- Once you find the file you want to attach, click on it
to highlight it. (Hold the shift key down while clicking to highlight
multiple files.) Then click the "Open" button.
- The file you selected to attach should now show up in
the "Attachments" field to the right of your message's address
info and subject line. If you want to attach additional files to the same
e-mail, begin with Step 1 again. Click on the "Send" button to
mail the message with the attachment(s).
Adding
Attachments Using Netscape 7.2 Mail On Windows XP SP2 And
Mac OS X 10.4
- With Netscape Mail open, create a new e-mail message.
Prepare it for sending by filling in the recipient's address, the subject,
and the body of your message.
- Click your cursor arrow on the "Attach"
button in the toolbar. (It looks like a paper clip.) The "Attach
File(s)" dialog box will appear.
- Browse to the file you would like to attach by
clicking on the drop-down arrow next to the "Look-in" field.
Select the directory where the file you want to attach is located. Note:
On the Macintosh, you get what looks like a standard Macintosh
"Open" dialog box. There is no "Look-in" field.
- Once you find the file you want to attach, click on it
to highlight it. (Hold the shift key down while clicking to highlight
multiple files.) Then click the "Open" button.
- The file you selected to attach should now show up in
the "Attachments" field to the right of your message's address
info and subject line. If you want to attach additional files to the same
e-mail, begin with Step 1 again. Click on the "Send" button to
mail the message with the attachment(s).
Adding
Attachments Using Mail 2.1.1 On Mac OS X 10.4
- With Mail open, create a new e-mail message. Prepare
it for sending by filling in the recipient's address, the subject, and the
body of your message.
- Click your cursor arrow on the "Attach"
button in the toolbar. (It looks like a paper clip.) A standard
"Open" dialog box will appear.
- Browse to the file you would like to attach.
- Once you find the file you want to attach, click on it
to highlight it. (Hold the shift key down while clicking to highlight
multiple files.) If you are sending the file to a Windows user, click in
the check box next to "Send Windows Friendly Attachments." Then
click the "Choose File" button.
- The file you selected to attach should now show up in
the body of your message. If you want to attach additional files to the
same e-mail, begin with Step 1 again. Click on the "Send" button
to mail the message with the attachment(s).
We hope you found this
newsletter to be informative. It's our way of keeping you posted on the
happenings here. If, however, you'd prefer not to receive these bulletins on a
monthly basis, click HERE.
Thanks for your business!
Best regards,
The E-Connections
Team
Polar E-Connections
Polar Communications
110 4th St E
Park River, ND 58270
800-284-7222 
(We have used our best efforts in collecting and preparing the information
published herein. However, we do not assume, and hereby disclaim, any and all
liability for any loss or damage caused by errors or omissions, whether such
errors or omissions resulted from negligence, accident, or other causes.)
©2007
Cornerstone Publishing Group Inc.
Trademarks: All brand names and product names used in this eNewsletter
are trade names, service marks, trademarks or registered trademarks of their
respective owners.