Succeeding in Your Business by Cliff Ennico

It may seem odd to be asking this question in 2009. After all, the Internet has been with us for about 15 years, and e-mail was one of the first "killer apps" to emerge in the Internet era. Everybody uses e-mail, for just about everything, and I'd be willing to bet there are literally trillions of e-mails floating around in cyberspace leaving an amazing archaeological record of how we all lived our lives at the dawn of the Third Millennium A.D.

But something that happened to me recently has made me wonder whether we should be relying so much on e-mail.

Earlier this year, I woke up one morning to find I couldn't receive e-mails. I contacted my internet service provider and, after several hours, was informed that one of my websites — the one my primary e-mail address is tied to – had been invaded by a "worm" program. Apparently, someone had deduced my password, and was using my address to send "please wire money to our bank account in Lower Slobbovia" e-mails to everyone in my e-mail address book.

My ISP changed my password, and I started getting e-mails again. I thought that was the end of it, until several of my law clients complained that their e-mail messages to me were not getting through. They said they were receiving "bounceback" messages from their ISPs saying, in effect, that my e-mail address didn't exist. Most of the frustrated clients were using one of the large cable companies as their ISP.

I called my ISP, who in turn called tech support at the large cable company. It seems that his e-mail server had been "blacklisted" by the cable company because of all the spam e-mail messages that had come from my e-mail address when the "worm" program had taken it over. The two ISPs exchanged a few numbers, the server was removed from the cable company's "blacklist," and I was assured the problem was solved.

Except that I kept receiving calls from frustrated clients, using other ISPs, saying that my e-mail address still wasn't working.

A couple of weeks ago, I had to travel across the country on business, which meant accessing my e-mails from the road using my ISP's "webmail" program. When I logged into my webmail account, I was shocked to discover that the name on my account was that of the "scam-spam" fraudster.

Apparently my ISP neglected to change the identity on the account when they changed my password, so that every time I sent a message, replied to a message or forwarded a message, unbeknownst to me, the fraudster's "scam-spam" message was being tacked on at the end of my legitimate message.

As a result, a number of large ISPs were continuing to "blacklist" my ISP's e-mail server, which explained why some clients could not communicate with me via e-mail.

Needless to say, I had some choice words for my ISP. While it appears (at least for now) that there are no tag-along "scam-spam" messages on my outgoing e-mail messages, I am still occasionally getting calls from people saying their messages to my primary e-mail address are bouncing back to them. And I am sure a lot of people who are trying to reach me for the first time via e-mail have not been able to get through.

I am being told the only way I can be 100 percent certain the problem has been solved would be to change my primary e-mail address to a different website – something I am extremely reluctant to do, as I have used my address for almost 15 years now and would have to give notice to thousands of people. To say nothing of the hundreds of articles I have written that are posted somewhere on the Web and which prominently feature an e-mail address that would no longer be valid.

My purpose in sharing this with you is not merely to vent my frustration. It is to point out that, even in the year 2009, there are serious and unresolved issues with e-mail communications. In light of my recent experience, I am no longer sure that communication via e-mail is 100 percent reliable, dependable or secure. My faith in e-mail has been shaken to the core, and I am not sure you should trust your sensitive business communications to it.

So if you are sending me an e-mail message in response to this column, please use the e-mail address below — the last time I checked, it was still working. If you are using another e-mail address for me, and I have not responded to an e-mail message you have sent me, you now know the reason why. If I have made you nervous about communicating via e-mail, please call me or send me a letter.

And please, whatever you do, do not send any money to a bank account in Lower Slobbovia because you think I asked you to.

Cliff Ennico (crennico@gmail.com) is a syndicated columnist, author and former host of the PBS television series "Money Hunt." This column is no substitute for legal, tax or financial advice, which can be furnished only by a qualified professional licensed in your state. To find out more about Cliff Ennico and other Creators Syndicate writers and cartoonists, visit our Web page at www.creators.com.

COPYRIGHT 2009 CLIFFORD R. ENNICO.

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