ellen wrote:
> hi everyone,
>
> someone has posted in some other group using my name & email address.
> any suggestions? keep in my my level of incompetence with computer
> related issues.
Unfortunately, this is easy to do. They are not posting through
groups.google.com, but that is also easy to do.
This isn't a "good" solution, but it is "a" solution.
00. Report the offender to
abuse@groups.google.com. Don't
expect them to do anything about it, however. You'll probably
just get a boilerplate reply. Find out how to do this here:
http://preview.tinyurl.com/3c8v7d
0. You could post to those groups announcing that someone else
is posting under your name. this would probably egg that
impostor on to new heights, however.
1. Register for another email account with gmail (I have 4 or 5,
that I use for different purposes.)
2. NEVER post from an email account that you use to send and
receive your desired email. Treat the email account that you use
to post to newsgroups as an alias. This will also reduce - but
not eliminate - the spam that overwhelms your real messages.
3. I see that you are posting from Google.groups. This forces
you to post with a real email account shown. You can avoid this
by using an external email account and external newsreader, which
allows you to post using a fake email address.
To do this, you'd need to switch to using an external emailer and
newsreader like Thunderbird or Netscape or Outlook Express (I
mention these because I'm familiar with them; there are other
programs that you can use to post and read news) and using a news
server (suggestions, anyone? I use the one that comes packaged
with Comcast, and I've forgotten the names of others).
Thunderbird (free) -
http://www.mozilla.com/en-US/thunderbird/
Netscape (free) -
http://browser.netscape.com/
Outlook Express - packaged with Windows (I think)
Yeah, there's a little set-up involved, but it's not too
difficult. The advantage that (3) gives you is that you do not
have to post a real email address when you post to usenet.
That's why I have "To reply, unleash the dog." People, but not a
computer, can figure out how to send me email, but any spam that
originates from a mail harvesting program will go nowhere.
Unfortunately, in the wild and woolly world of the internet,
there's not much you can do to stop someone who tries to steal
your identity. Is the person doing something truly nasty like
trying to commit fraud, or make it look like you're selling porn,
or is it more at the level of annoyance?
HTH -
FurPaw
--
The Bush legacy - no child left a dime.
To reply, unleash the dog.
ot - someone posting w/my address 
Linear Mode
