To: David S

Subject: RE: Yourfor June 2009

E-Mail Scam Flu Outbreak Leads To Scam Outbreak DPAO/Toyota 2009 Summer Concert Series Some great concerts are coming to the Watertown Fairgrounds Arena so get out and dance! Bobcats, Bears, and Brews At Thompson Park THE NYS Zoo's First Annual Beer tasting so come support the animals. Miner Institute Open House Saturday June 27th 100 years and growing Ask The Help Desk Before I Forward E-mails, Am I Supposed To Delete The E-mail Addresses Of The Previous Recipients? Westelcom Maintenance Notice for June 9th at 2:00am Sites Of The Month Great Sites To Check Out In June Short Tutorial Shortcut For E-mailing A Link To A Friend

Valued Westelcom Customers Summertime is all about easy living, and we're doing our best to make things a little easier for you when it comes to your online activities. We begin this June issue with a warning about swine flu scams now spreading like a virus on the Web—it's easy to protect yourself if you follow basic precautions. You'll also find simple instructions for deleting the e-mail addresses of previous recipients before you forward an e-mail, and a shortcut for e-mailing a website link to a friend. Finally, browse through the selections in Great Sites for summer-ready resources including grilling tips from an expert, great deals on vacation condos, and a free tool that enables you to "see yourself slimmer" while getting ready for swimsuit season. The goal of each of our monthly eNewsletters is to keep our subscribers informed regarding their Internet connection and to improve their Internet experience. We think you'll find this information interesting. If, however, you'd prefer not to receive these bulletins on a monthly basis, click here. To see what's inside this issue, simply scroll down the eNewsletter or click on the links within the index to the left. Thanks for reading! - Westelcom

E-Mail Scam - Flu Outbreak Leads To Scam Outbreak

As they do with most every major news event, cybercriminals are attempting to cash in on the worldwide hysteria over H1N1 swine flu by using a variety of online scams. These include fraudulent e-mails selling swine flu survival guides or bogus vaccines and medications. One of the more serious spam messages contains a malicious PDF file that purports to answer frequently asked questions about the swine flu. When a user accesses the file, malcode within the PDF tries to drop another piece of malware onto the user's system. If a victim opens the file, their machine is immediately infected with a Trojan, which tries to steal sensitive data.

Here's an example of one of the many flu-related spam messages:

There have also been Search Engine Optimization (SEO) attacks where malware writers register domains related to the swine flu news event, and "game" the search engines' site-ranking algorithms to have their domains displayed among the top items when users search for information on the event. These bogus websites claim to have products available for purchase that will "prevent, treat and even cure" the swine flu virus.

Be on the lookout for e-mails and websites aimed at taking advantage of the current swine flu outbreak. To avoid falling victim to these scams:

• Get all the information you need about the flu from a reputable source such as the World Health Organization site at www.who.int/en/
• Avoid opening e-mail from an unknown source and do not click on links in the body of the e-mail or open any attachments.
• Make sure your antivirus and antispyware software is up-to-date and all operating system security patches have been installed.

Back to Top

Check Out The DPAO/Toyota 2009 Summer Concert Series

Watertown's Fairgrounds Arena will be the site for some great concerts this summer, including The Fabulous Thunderbirds on June 21st, Three Dog Night, Gary Puckett, and The Buckinghams on July 25th, a children's show featuring The Laurie Berkner Band on August 8th, and Billy Currington and Craig Morgan on August 15th.  Go to www.dpao.org for more information and dance away!

Back to Top

Thompson Park's First Annual Bobcats, Bears and Brews Beer Tasting Event

Westelcom is proud to sponsor Thompson Park at their First Annual Bobcats, Bears & Brews Event, to be held Saturday August 1st from 5:30 PM - 8:30 PM.  Tickets are $40.00/person or a Group/Military rate of $35.00/person. Come out and support the animals of Thompson Park. For more information, visit www.nyszoo.org/zoobrew.html

Back to Top

Miner Farm Hosting An Open House Saturday June 27th From 12-4 PM

The historic Miner Farm, located in Chazy, NY, is hosting an open house on Saturday June 27th from 12:00 to 4:00 pm, featuring a tour of the Heart's Delight Farm Heritage Exhibit, and you can also stroll the Wayside Walk and gardens, learn about cow behavior and dairy nutrition, explore their dairy, horse, and new dry cow facilities, see the Morgan horses in action, learn about the latest research projects, and meet the staff and students.  Also, go to www.whminer.organd watch their new video, "Miner Institute:  100 Years and Growing". 

Back to Top

Ask The Help Desk - Before I Forward E-mails, Am I Supposed To Delete The E-mail Addresses Of The Previous Recipients?

Question: Whenever I get an e-mail with a funny joke or video, I enjoy forwarding it to family and friends. But I heard that it's viewed as inconsiderate to not delete the e-mail addresses of the previous recipients before I forward e-mails. Why is this? And how do I delete the addresses?

Answer: There are a couple of reasons why it's preferred to delete the e-mail addresses of the previous recipients before forwarding e-mails. First, it can be annoying for your recipients to have to scroll down through a seemingly endless list of addresses before they get to the "guts" of the message. More importantly, addresses left exposed in circulating e-mails can be easily harvested by spammers and other cybercrooks.

Fortunately, it's very easy to delete these addresses before you forward e-mails. And your family and friends will thank you.

Whether you are using Outlook Express, Windows Mail or Mozilla Thunderbird for PC users, or Mail.app 3.1 for Mac users, simply highlight and then delete the "From" and "To" e-mail addresses within the body of the e-mail before you forward it.

Back to Top

Westelcom Maintenance Notice - Please Read

Westelcom will be upgrading our network on Tuesday June 9th at 2:00 am.  Customers will have downtime for 15 minutes from 2:00 am till 2:15 am.  We are sorry for any inconvenience this may cause, but upgrades are a good thing!

Back to Top

Sites Of The Month - Great Sites To Check Out In June

WHO on Swine Flu
http://who.int/en - Looking for authoritative information about the H1N1 flu virus (otherwise known as swine flu)? The World Health Organization (WHO) website is a good place to get it. This comprehensive site offers public health guidelines, updates on reported cases, pandemic status alerts, travel advice, and FAQs.

Instructables
http://instructables.com - Go here to learn how to do just about anything better. The site features instructions for do-it-yourself projects in a wide variety of categories such as arts and crafts, games, gardening, music, pets, and technology. User-friendly videos and photos guide you through the projects, and user comments offer firsthand accounts of what it's like to work on them.

Go Condo
http://pickpackgo.com - Take a trip through vacation rentals at hundreds of locations worldwide. Now is a great time to find a good deal on a condo and, since condos have kitchens, you can also save on restaurant costs by cooking for yourself. To use the site, just enter your destination, travel dates, preferred price, and other details to get your results. Photos and visitor comments provide a realistic description of each property.

The Grilling Coach
http://thegrillingcoach.com - It's grilling season! And if anyone knows grilling, it's Richard Myers, otherwise known as The Grilling Coach. This site offers detailed instructions about all things related to grilling including recipes, safety instructions, how to improve your grilling skills, and grill buying guides. Check out the instructional videos for more "hot tips."

View the New You
http://weightview.com - Ever wonder what you will look like when you lose those extra pounds? Now you don't have to wait for it to happen to find out. The WeightView site allows you to upload a photo of yourself and specify how much weight you'd like to lose, then sends you back an image of you at your target weight. You can use this image to motivate yourself to stay proactive about your goals. Check out the blog and join the community for additional support.

Back to Top

Short Tutorial - Shortcut For E-mailing A Link To A Friend

What do you do when you discover a great website and want to e-mail the link to a friend? Do you copy and paste the URL from the address bar into the body of your e-mail message? That method certainly works, but many browsers offer a feature that makes e-mailing a link even easier by setting up the e-mail for you. Just follow the steps below for the browser you use:

E-mailing a Link Using …
-Web Browser: Internet Explorer 7 or 8
-Computer Operating System: Windows XP or Windows Vista

1. With Internet Explorer 7 or 8 open and while on the webpage that you would like to e-mail, click your cursor arrow on “File” on the menu bar, select “Send” from the resulting drop-down menu, and then select “Link by E-mail…” from the subsequent drop-down menu.

2. Your default e-mail program will open and a new e-mail will automatically appear that contains the link to the webpage you selected within the body of the e-mail. The subject line will also automatically populate.

3. You simply need to add the recipient's e-mail address in the “To:” field and write a message in the body of the e-mail if you choose.

4. Next, click on the “Send” button and your e-mail containing the link will be on its way.

E-mailing a Link Using …
-Web Browser: Mozilla Firefox 3.0
-Computer Operating System: Mac OS X 10.5, Windows XP, or Windows Vista

1. With Firefox open and while on the webpage that you would like to e-mail, click your cursor arrow on “File” on the menu bar, and select “Send Link…” from the resulting drop-down menu.

2. Your default e-mail program will open and a new e-mail will automatically appear that contains the link to the webpage you selected within the body of the e-mail. The subject line will also automatically populate.

3. You simply need to add the recipient's e-mail address in the “To:” field and write a message in the body of the e-mail if you choose.

4. Next, click on the “Send” button and your e-mail containing the link will be on its way.

E-mailing a Link Using …
-Web Browser: Safari
-Computer Operating System: Mac OS X 10.5, Windows XP and Windows Vista

1. With Safari open and while on the webpage that you would like to e-mail, click your cursor arrow on “File” on the menu bar, and select “Mail Link to This Page” from the resulting drop-down menu.

2. Your default e-mail program will open and a new e-mail will automatically appear that contains the link to the webpage you selected within the body of the e-mail. The subject line will also automatically populate.

3. You simply need to add the recipient's e-mail address in the “To:” field and write a message in the body of the e-mail if you choose.

4. Next, click on the “Send” button and your e-mail containing the link will be on its way.

Back to Top

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,

Westelcom




If you have any comments or suggestions please email us at yoursuggestions@westelcom.com

If you require technical assistance please email us at support@westelcom.com

                                                  Westelcom
24 Margaret St                                                             130 Park Place
Plattsburgh, NY 12901                                                  Watertown, NY 13601

Tech Support:                866.FAST.TEC  (866.327.8832)

Customer Service:         866.IT.CLICKS (866.482.5425)

(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.)

©2009 Cornerstone Publishing Group Inc.

Trademarks: All brand names and product names used in this e-mail are trade names, service marks, trademarks or registered trademarks of their respective owners.