Mike Gunderloy, over at Web Worker Daily, has some great tips for organizing your email. From figuring out your organizational style, cool tools to use, to setting up rules, this article will help you take email organization to the next level.
In an earlier post, I mentioned a spammer who was phishing getting convicted and facing up to a 101 years in prison as a result. But what exactly is phishing?
Wikipedia defines phishing as
“a criminal activity using social engineering techniques. Phishers attempt to fraudulently acquire sensitive information, such as passwords and credit card details, by masquerading as a trustworthy person or business in an electronic communication. Phishing is typically carried out using email or an instant message, although phone contact has been used as well. Attempts to deal with the growing number of reported phishing incidents include legislation, user training, and technical measures.”
In a nutshell, phishing is something criminals do to trick people into giving them sensitive information. The stolen information is then used by the criminal for further illicit activities.
So, what does Boxbe do about phishing? First, the only email that you receive when using Boxbe is from senders that you have approved, have passed a human test or have paid a fee. Second, we use two emerging industry standards, SPF and DomainKeys to increase the likelihood that the sender isn’t spoofing or faking their email address.
Is it a 100% solution? No. Unfortunately, we can’t guard against all forms of social engineering or deception. What we can do is guard against emails from entering your inbox that make false claims as to their point of origin. The rest is up to you.
We suggest that everyone educate themselves against phishing. Here are some great places to learn more about phishing:
As Thede described earlier, at it’s root, Boxbe is designed to protect your most valuable asset: your attention. While you might not think of your time as being valuable, imagine how you might spend your time rather than deleting unwanted email. The mind abounds with activities that are more fun and rewarding.
Sounds great, how does it work?
Once you’ve joined Boxbe, you decide who can reach you by first uploading a list of pre-approved senders.
We’ve made it easy by integrating an email address import tool for your contacts from many different email providers and popular email applications.
When new people email you, depending on your preferences, they are sent a courtesy notice with the option of taking a test to prove that they are human or paying a fee to talk to you.
Non-humans (automated emails) won’t be able to reach you without paying a fee or being approved by you. When a sender takes a test or pays, you can approve them by simply clicking on the link in their message. Alternatively, you can visit your quarantine folder and approve them.
That’s it.
Boxbe sends you a periodic update telling you about the messages in your quarantine, so you’ll know if there is any email that you are missing. In addition, you can review your quarantine to approve new senders at any time.