I was just reading a Yahoo Blogger talking about how her yahoo email account was hacked and later her eBay account hacked as well. Yahoo is very well known for not providing safe email accounts. This is not the first time I hear of a yahoo email account being hacked and I've been w/yahoo forever under other user name (s).

My friend Lisa was telling me the other day of the hassles she went through because her yahoo email account was hacked. She had it linked to all her bank accounts, utilities websites etc etc. She tried to re-set her password by choosing the "forgot the password" option but kept getting the same message: "Your username and Password does not match". The hacker changed her email account password, deleted all her emails, folders, and even changed her address in her yahoo personal profile. She had a hard time calling yahoo, mailing copy of her driver license plus other info, to just prove it was her indeed who was claiming her account back. Yahoo finally re-setted her account.

My word of advice to anyone who is reading this Guide is to open an email account with YOUR ISP = Internet Service Provider = the company you pay internet connection to. Your new email address will end up with the name of your internet company.

This NEW email account is the one you want to use for ALL your financial transactions like Online banking, Paypal, Credit card payments, Utility payments, Billing, your Job contact etc. You Should NOT give out this email to Anyone including friends. It is NOT a good idea to print this secured email address on your business cards either. Mark as "Spam" any FW's or any other email received in this account.

If you are conducting business in the internet, you may want to open a second email account with your ISP. They normally provide you with 3-10 free email accounts. Your online business is also part of your finances. This account may be used for your online purchases as well. You Should NOT give out this email to Anyone including friends. Mark as "Spam" any un-wanted mail. Most e-commerce websites like eBay, Overstock, Amazon, have their own email system so your buyers and sellers can contact your through their websites, keeping this way "your privacy" by not exposing your email address to the entire public.

Free email accounts like yahoo and hotmail are the ones you want to use for blogging, homepages, your friends emails, picture sharing, and to send and receive those tons of FW's mail. The major problem here is that many of our new friends don't know the meaning or how to use the CC or BCC features. Instead, when they forward their jokes, pictures, stories or whatever they will also forward all the headings and lists and lists of email address previously forwarded from one person to the other. Before you know your email will be spammed by unknown senders. The best way to forward an email is sending it to yourself then highlight and delete all previous headings, including the list of emails forwarded from, leave just the text you'd like to forward and use the BCC to send blind copies to all your friends. To learn about or how to use your CC or BCC just search for What is CC or BCC?

Ever wondered how marketers found your email address? If you are registering for "freebies" like free counters, sweepstakes, free e-cards, free gifts sites, again, use your FREE email account (yahoo, hotmail etc) because believe me...even tho those freebies websites promote a "Privacy" statement, chances are your email account will end up sold to marketers who will later send you TONS & TONS of JUNK MAIL. Adjust your filters in your free email account so all these junk goes directly to your junk folder and report as "Spam". Never use your secured-for finances email account for this purpose. Better yet.... open a Free email account and name it something like this: myjunk at anyserver dot com, junk_123 at anyserver dot com   etc etc. Don't forget to write your junk username & password because most websites offering free email accounts will want you to log in at least once every 30 days in order to keep your account open. What is the benefit of a junk username? You will never have to check those emails! After all... who has time to check Junk Mail?

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My special Thanks to 561doreen for helping me choose the title for this guide.