TECH TEAM TIPS

1. To assure that all club members know our region website address, we suggest you put it on your weekly agenda. It is http://www.soroptimistspr.org. As always, if you have any questions or wish to update information on your clubsite, please feel free to contact us. We’re here to help.

2. To assure that all club members know how to verify a hoax, chain letter or false virus warning, we suggest you put it on your club bulletin a mention of this link http://hoaxbusters.ciac.org. This website also contains some useful content for an article on what to do when you suspect you have received a hoax email that you can copy and paste into your club bulletin. There are other anti-hoax websites that offer the same services. We welcome members to “submit your tips” and will give credit to the member submitting the tip.

3. Always keep your clubsite or region committee information fresh and current. This will assure that members will want to visit our site frequently. It's a wonderful communication tool for your club. Some items you may want to consider are club calendar, upcoming events, member business directory, brags about your club's successes, photos of events, etc. If you need to update information, simply email the content to the TechTeam. We will be happy to assist you.

4. Always make sure you are using the latest version of a program, i.e. Adobe Acrobat. The latest version is 5.0. Here's how to check the version of most any windows product:

Launch the program, click on help, select from the drop down menu “About (name of application)”. The version of the product will be among the information. Another method would be to RIGHT click the application's icon and select 'properties'. Properties is always the last item in the list. If your program needs to be upgraded, simply go to the company website and download the upgrade.

6. For PC users: Have you ever turned on your computer only to see a black screen with these words ominously displayed? “NON SYSTEM DISK OR DISK ERROR. REPLACE AND STRIKE ANY KEY WHEN READY.” It simply means you left a floppy disk in your A: drive when you last shut down. You have to remove it, and strike any key, before your computer can proceed.

Pretty scary for how simple the fix is. The same thing does not occur when you leave a CD in the drive, but it is advisable to develop a habit of removing all removable media - disks - from all drives before shutting down.

7. Just a reminder, the Tech Team is here to help! We want to assist you in updating and taking full advantage of your club's space on the Sierra Pacific Region website! Each club in the Sierra Pacific Region has a place to brag about your club, share information, promote your service projects and fundraisers and tell the world what you are doing. Your members can even list their business there and we'll be happy to put a link to their business website! This is a great networking tool!

We are now encouraging each club to assign a TECH LINK. This person will communicate information to us and assist in keeping your clubsite up to date. No technical knowledge is required. The Tech Link will simply email information to the SPR Tech Team ... that's all ... and that's easy! Let us help you. Please email the name and email address of your TECH LINK to us as soon as possible so we can begin the communication. We're here to help!

8. Have you ever been uncertain about a character in a password or email address? The most egregious of these are "the zero vs. the upper case O" and "the number one vs. the lower case L vs. the upper case 'eye'." To determine the actual character, copy the text into a word processor and change the font style to a serif font, such as Times New Roman and then into a sans-serif font like Arial or Helvetica.

The number one, the lower case L and the upper case "eye" will distinguish themselves in this exercise.

Times New Roman: 1 (numeral one), l (lower case L), I (upper case "eye")--note the similarity between the numeral one and the lower case L.

Arial: 1 (one), l (lower case L), I (upper case I)--note the similarity between the lower case L and the upper case "eye".

PS: These examples will not provide clear demonstrations unless you are viewing them in their true styles. Plain Text Format converts everything to a common style.

As for the zero vs OH, sometimes the difference is visible, the zero being more elongated as in these examples:
Zero in Arial: 0
Upper Case O in Arial: O
Zero in Times New Roman: 0
Upper Case O in Times New Roman: O

But how about these less common fonts?:
Impact: Which is the Zero, which is the Capital "OH"? 0/O
Lucida Calligraphy: Which is the Zero, and which is the lower case "OH"? 0/o

Another tip: When selecting a password the confusion could be to your advantage, making the password harder to decipher, but when selecting a domain name or email address avoid these troublesome characters unless you are certain they won't be confused for each other.

9. Is it SPAM or a SCAM? Sometimes spam looks like spam. But sometimes spam looks like a desperate plea for help--and that's a scam. It is harder to delete because all humans, especially Soroptimists, are susceptible to the power of the "H" word..."Help". And well, you just never know! But you can find out! Before you do anything go to one of the many hoax web sites to check it out. Here's the link for one of them, Hoaxbusters: http://hoaxbusters.ciac.org/HBHoaxIndex.html Everyone should visit Hoaxbusters at least once to become familiar with the keywords con artists use.

10. "Phisher" scams are becoming more popular among fraudsters and you should pay close attention to not get hooked. This is how a phishing scam works:
You receive an email from a company you do business with - your ISP, your bank or your cellular provider. The e-mail or phone call indicates that you need to provide or validate payment information soon or you run the risk of your account being turned off or deactivated. Frequently, you are directed to a website that looks remarkably like the company's official website, but the address of the website is a little bit different. For example, a company's official website might be abccompany.com. But a phisher e-mail would direct you to abccompany-verify.com or abccompany-accounts.com and the rest of the page or site would look official.
Don't get hooked To protect yourself from one of these scams, the Federal Trade Commission recommends the following:

• If you get an e-mail that warns you with little or no notice that an account of yours will be shut down unless you validate or reconfirm your personal information, do not reply. Instead, contact the company with a website or phone number you know to be true.
• Be careful when e-mailing personal and financial information. Before submitting information, look for the lock in the status bar or "https" in the URL on the browser's status bar.
• Review credit card and bank statements carefully as soon as you get them to determine if there are any unauthorized charges. Also, be aware if one of your statements or bills is late coming to you and call the bank or credit card company to confirm your billing address.
• Report suspicious activity to the FTC and send suspicious e-mails to uce@ftc.gov.

It happened to Justin Justin H, a consultant from Atlanta, was at an Orlando Magic game when he got a call from a man who identified himself as a customer service representative from his wireless provider. He verified all of Justin's appropriate account information, and then told him that he needed to provide an updated credit card due to recent changes on the account. Justin gave him a current credit card. It turns out that the "customer care representative" that called was actually an identity thief who stole his mail earlier the previous day - which included his wireless bill. He used the wireless account information and credit card to open a new line of credit and ordered over $5,000 in merchandise.

11. SPR web pages are constantly changing. If you save sites in your "favorites" or bookmark them, so you can access them quickly, this tip might be of interest to you. When you open a webpage from your "favorites", you are actually seeing the version that you previously viewed. Hit the F5 Function Key at the top of your keyboard to "refresh" the page. You will then be viewing the latest version.

12 Did you ever think "Hmmm... where am I supposed to send my clubsite updates? Is it the Webmaster? Or the TechTeam?" Wonder no more! The Sierra Pacific Region website has added a new generic email address for clubs to use for submitting clubsite updates. After careful consideration the new email address will be called: Clubsite Updates.

.Now you can submit your clubsite updates without even thinking twice. What's a clubsite? It's your club's page, or pages, on the region's website, www.soroptimistspr.org. Go visit the region website now and find your clubsite. Does your content need a freshening up? Send your updates to Clubsite Updates.

13. Some of you may have received an email that looked like this: "Dear user (your/generic/address),
Your account was used to send a large amount of junk e-mail messages during the last week. Probably, your computer was infected by a recent virus and now runs a trojan proxy server. Please follow the instruction in order to keep your computer safe. Have a nice day, soroptimistspr.org user support team. "

This Tech Tip is to let you know that it is spam and to point out how to spot the clues.

• For one, it contains a dire warning, the aim of which is to grab your attention. The expressions "infected by a recent virus" and "now runs a trojan proxy server" will grab anyone's attention these days.
• It offers a non-specific solution the aim of which is to have you open the attached file, which is precisely how you can be infected with a virus or trojan. In this case, however, the aim is more likely an attempt to validate your email address. If you replied to the email you did just that.
• In this case, it is written with gentle wording such as "Probably,..." and "Have a nice day." It could have been written in a more dire style, but in this case the ploy was to make you feel safe. Read their claim: (if you open the attachment) we will help you "keep your computer safe."
• It is brief. Brevity increases the chance you'll read it.
• It is written generically, like a form letter. The lack of "intimacy" such as the word Soroptimist, or Sierra Pacific Region, or Tech Team, are clues that the sender doesn't know you We know you. At least they used "Dear user..." instead of "Dear Sir or Madam" which we hope would have raised a red flag immediately. We don't call you users. We call you Soroptimists.
• Finally, it is signed "soroptimistspr.org user support team", which we do not call ourselves, even though it is, technically, what we are and what we do. The
  team." We are the Tech Team and we are so proud of our name we sing about it!

Those are just some of the clues that you can look for in future spam emails.

• When in doubt: don't open the attachment
• delete the email without replying
• never ask to be removed from their list by typing the word "remove" into the subject heading
• don't attempt to unsubscribe by clicking here

If you want to, you can copy the text of the suspicious email and paste it into a fresh email window, then "hand address" it to TechTeam(at sign)soroptimistpr.org. We will read it to confirm that it was sent by the Tech Team or not and we will get back to you.

Please don't foward it. The spammer may have put their email address into the blind carbon copy window (Bcc:) and when you forward to us you are validating both your address and ours. (Sneaky, aren't they?)

In this instance we have most likely been spammed to verify the validity of our addresses and not infected with a virus. But if you are concerned that you may have been infected with a virus it may mean you are not fully protected, or doubt your protection. Norton? McAfee? Whichever you use, keep it updated and turned on.

This email was sent to you by the 2002–2006 Soroptimist Sierra Pacific Region Tech Team. Linda, Lori and Merry. "We're here to help."
The 2006–2008 Tech Team, Marcia, Chris and Donna, is also here to help.

Any questions?
Email the TechTeam.