I’m sure many of you have noticed the fancy flashing banners announcing “You are the 1,000,000 visitor to this site, click here for your prize”. And while I can not say what the prize is I can tell you one thing: you are not the 1,000,000th visitor to that site. Do not click that banner and fill out any personal information. You are not going to get a free radio or iPod by filling out your information. What you are going to get is spam. What is spam? Wikipedia defines spam as Unsolicited Bulk E-mail or UBE. What this means is that you are going to get a bunch of e-mail that you did not ask for. To make their e-mails even more tricky the spammers may even use your name if you give it to them. You may get e-mails that have the subject “Mary you have unclaimed money”. If your name is Mary you are more likely to open it. The spammers are even smart enough to know when your e-mail is opened. That makes your e-mail address even more valuable because they know it is a live and valid e-mail. Please be safe online and only give out information to known and trusted web sites and companies.
