Too often, important, even intra-company, email, winds up in your trash folder. Resending, sending without a subject line, consulting your Magic-8 ball... are some solutions. The more scientific way to ensure your email gets through is follow the Can-Spam rules found at the government site: http://www.ftc.gov/bcp/conline/pubs/buspubs/canspam.shtm.
Additionally, from the 60-Second Marketer we run a very brief, concise second video with 10 tips of words not to use in any subject line if you want your email to go through.
10 Words, Phrase or Actions To Avoid In Email Subject Lines:
1. Use of the word "free".
2. Excessive punctuation.
3. The phrase "please read".
See video for the rest.
PI Tip Of The Week: Pending the financially parameters of your case, when required to prove a long-time, pre-existing premises defects/dangerous conditions, have an address history run of the property in question to obtain previous tenant information. Follow up with subject locates and interview previous residents.
You're On Vacation: The Burglars Aren't. Security Tips
The school year is coming to a close next week here in the Northeast, and the hostage situation at the pumps aside, most families have planned vacations this summer. The etymology of the word vacation itself : from the Latin root vac, is to render something/someone "empty" (vacuum, vacate, vacuous...). Somewhat ironic in the case of a home burglary during a family's away time.
In today's Bulletin we are going to give you the standard "what to do to make your home look occupied while you are away" tips and a few more up-to-date security pointers: (Also, the above video, aside from being highly entertaining, likewise contains solid security tips re: burglary prevention during your vacation.)
Traditional Tips:
• Stop mail and newspapers, and ask a trusted neighbor to pick up any deliveries that might be made while you are gone.
• Place several lamps and radio/TV in various parts of your home to automatic timers, so they turn on and off at appropriate times (vary the timers also by the unit itself so that the living room light does not come on at exactly 7 p.m. every night...).
• Arrange to have your lawn mowed (or sidewalk shoveled) while you are away.
• Don't leave keys in obvious exterior places like in the mail box or under a flower pot or door mat. Leave your house key with a trusted neighbor.
• Instruct your trusted neighbor to report unusual activity to the police - and not to wait until they can contact you first. You may be holed up in a Carlsbad cavern for several nights or an in-house therapy clinic following a runn-in' with the bulls in Pamplona.
• Have a neighbor park their car in your driveway overnight (and move it around from day to day).
• Don't leave notes indicating your absence.
• Many security experts advise unplugging the electric garage door opener while you are away. We don't. A burglar's scanner can easily detect whether the device is activated. Simply place it too on a variable timer.
• Make sure all your door and window locks are working and in use.
• Turn off or turn down your telephone ringer. A phone ringing endlessly is a clue to a would-be burglar that no one is home. This is especially important if you are living in an apartment building where burglars may be more likely to hear your phone ringing. Call forward your incoming calls in your absence.
• Unless you have reason to believe your piping system is in bad shape and may burst in inclement weather, do not turn off your main water valve before you leave. Fortunately, technological advances in utility services now offer scanning options that don't require exterior meters on houses - an inactive one a sure clue to a burglar that the home residents may be away.
Contemporary Tips: • Do not activate automatic "away" responses from your email - business and personal - addresses. And especially ones with specific dates of your absence. You might as well inquire into ad rates in the NYT.
• Further on the preceding tip, activate a disposal WiFi card from your vacation spot. Repeatedly answering your emails from your iPhone, Wing or Blackberry, by definition, signifies that you are away from your normal communication access points. (Yesterday's sad-sack street burglars have been replaced by snipers - they target specific homes, can obtain email addresses easily.. e.g. most business emails are comprised of the person's first initial and full last name@theirlawfirm, Email read times can easily be tracked - yes, including "Internet" ones. A cleverly written subject line can pique someone's curiosity enough into opening a "pigeon" email. Today's smart burglar considers this time in tracking you a lucrative investment.)
• Have your email/snail mail forwarded to a virtual post office. They can hold, forward, scan or even read your email/mail to you. Big advantage: the forwarding is discreet and undetectable.
Generally, we tend to believe and trust in the good of the vast majority of people; being smart and proactive with your home and valuables while you are away helps to maintain that attitude.
1. Plan a vacation or event that requires you to be away from your practice and/or home
2. Be courteous to your clients, friends and family (and ANYONE ELSE who might send you an email and/or ping you via IM) by enabling your "Out of Office" and/or "Away Message".
3. Create a specifically worded auto-reply: "Hi - I am out of town for several days/weeks. If your message is urgent please contact my assistant, ________ @........"
Every day, professionals, in a courteous effort, inadvertently advertise their mobility (read: away-ness), giving advance notice to friends, family, clients and criminals that they will not be protecting their fortresses. Usually by giving an exact address in the signature line of their email.
We suggest a less overly informative away message:
"Due to work responsibilities, my email is being filtered until March 23rd Please forward any email to Jane Smiley@myfirm.com" or "Due to work responsibilities, my email is being forwarded until March 23. Your email is being forwarded to my assistant, Jane Smiley and you will be contacted shortly."
It's a hard bit of reality to accept, but the very technologies we employ to make our personal and professional lives more efficient and convenient, also enable lapses in security we might not immediately realize.
This week we cover ground and electronic tracking.
Ground tracking may involve placing a tracking device - either tonal or GPS system - on a vehicle or object and monitoring its movement in real time. Our guest video this week explains the differences between tonal and GPS tracking. Good information to store on a back burner should you encounter a client matter requiring such services. The info contained in the video helps one determine which type of tracking is the most viable and cost-effective for a specific situation.
How To Tell If You Are Being Ground Tracked:
1. Check your tires for chalk marks. (Easy, inexpensive and foolproof method for someone to check if you are moving your vehicle.)
2. Check under the middle areas of both sides of the vehicle. Tracking devices are generally placed under the middle pillar of a car - not on the rear of the Ferrari as seen in every Magnum P.I. episode.
3. If you think you are being followed, first consider your safety. If you believe you are in danger, call 911 or stop at a local police station. If it's for fun and giggles, stop at an offbeat place - like a monument store next to a cemetery. See who stops too. Wave.
For electronic tracking - Aliases, serious background checks, locating the unlocatable..., we go to our good friends at www.geopointdata.com . Not your daddy's information service. GeoPoint's records are not available to the general public, the nosy media or bored former classmate seekers. (In fact, you can't even get in to see the meat of what they do unless you have been approved.) If you are looking to fill a family reunion venue - head to USSearch. If you have a wrongful death with disappearing witnesses; see the guys at GeoPointData. Everyone leaves a byte trail.
How To Tell If You Are Being Electronically Tracked:
1. Check your credit report. (Everyone is entitled to a free annual credit report. There are three main consumer credit reporting agencies. You can get a free report then every four months.) Check the very bottom of the report. All inquirants must be posted by name and phone number.
2. Note unusual junk mail. Especially free offers that require simply returning a mailer, postage paid.
3. Be wary of "utility" or "directory company" calls requesting contact info updates. The real companies will send ground mail requests.
4. Online. Information requests from your friends at PayPal addressed from (e.g.) paypal@neopost.com is neither from a friend or Paypal. PayPal, Ebay, Lexis... require on-site updates and will send mail to you on their sites.
5. Banking. Check for small deposits to your account. The teller may have been asked for an account balance on the deposit receipt. Most tellers will provide that info to anyone making a deposit into an account. Have your accounts specifically tagged for information release authorization. The bank can also require the depositor's I.D. Be interesting to check bank video if someone tries to deposit into your account and refuses to do so after an I.D. has been requested. (In general, banks allow deposits to be made by anyone. They can, however, be held accountable for releasing information other than to authorized account signatories.)
On the run professionals often do not have the capability to immediately access WiFi connections. Simple tasks such as checking email, viewing your daily schedule, performing quick online research for a matter at hand... are made difficult when one is not in his/her own static environment. Trying to manually access a laptop or handheld's connections manager while out of the office becomes a complicated and very slow process.
Recently, we found ourselves in a crunch situation wherein we had to access email that contained important background information for a case, while already in the field and out of contact with the client. We ran across one of the best tools out there for fast and easy WiFi access with, literally, one mouse click. Easy WiFiRadar. Here's the best part - no credit cards. It's totally FREE - and it works!! We've used it for months now.
Check out the Easy WiFiRadar (www.makayama.com/easywifiradar.html), video above. The instructor delivers a quick tutorial that will have you accessing free WiFi in less than two minutes, in one click, guaranteed.
The term cybersleuthing conjures images of 24's CTU (Counter Terrorism Unit) uber-geek cops, rapidly accessing everything from GPS coordinates to nuclear launch sequences. It all seems like "magic" that boils down to a final, tense 5 minutes of electronic search scrambling to save Jack Bauer's life. The truth of cybersleuthing is that there is no "magic". It's science. It is a matter of knowledge, skill and resources. Mostly resources. In this week's Bulletin, we want to give the reader the knowledge, the instruction to be able to practice the skill, and the resources to be able to perform basic cyber investigations without the aid of someone that may charge your firm a small fortune for what may only amount to thirty minutes of work at a computer. We hope that these links will provide you with just that information, skill practice and investigation capability:
Search Engines:
www.google.com - the web's most popular search engine
Next are the cyber investigation sites that will provide you with the instructions and resources to conduct your own email tracing, domain registration information, mail delivery routes...
Trace route: Did you know that there are differences in trace route on a Unix Machine and a Windows Machine?
Whois: This invaluable tool is invaluable to the Cyber Investigators. Every Cyber Investigator should have at least a cursory knowledge of it. You can get that cursory knowledge here.
Whois: http://www.whois.us
DNS: Domain Name Servers, learn about BIND (Berkley Internet Name Domain), and how it has helped to make Internet Navigation easier.
DNS: http://www.nwc.com/netdesign/cook5.html
Packet Switching: It is key to understand how information travels from computer to computer on the Internet. Information travels in what is called “packets”.
More on Packet Switching: http://www.cciw.com/content/packet.html
IP Numbers: Every Cyber Investigator should know what an IP Number is. It stands for Internet Protocol Number. This number is unique to each machine logged onto the Internet. This number is key in performing an email trace.
IP Number: http://www.auditmypc.com/acronym/IP.asp
Header Information: The first step in tracing an email, KNOW YOUR HEADERS! Here you will learn how to expose an email header, how to read a header, and how to use the information in the header to gather information on the person that sent the email.
Every Cyber Investigator has a Cyber Investigations Tool Box. This tool box enables him or her to do different things on their computer to determine and gather certain information in their investigations. Here you will be able to make your own tool box so that you can too.
