Hackers create email headache

Wanganui woman Vicki Francis was shocked when she opened her email inbox to find it empty.

She soon found out why when calls came in from friends and business acquaintances in Wanganui and around the country who were responding to her urgent email requesting £1250 ($2550) because she was stuck in London.

But Ms Francis was not in London, had not been robbed and did not need the money. "All my 221 contacts were cleared out and the hackers had created another email address," she said.

Another friend from Israel contacted Ms Francis and said he had seen her only last week in New Zealand and was surprised because she had not mentioned she was going to London.

Last year, Wanganui artist Jo Ockey who was also fronting the Whanganui Artists' Open Studios, had her email addresses stolen when someone hacked into her page on the internet social networking website Facebook.

Ms Francis said she had been in contact with Telecom who had changed her password, although once bitten she was twice shy about divulging any personal details over the phone.

Ms Francis said it was a salutary lesson to be vigilant about changing your password.

Keep your internet identity safe

- Have separate business and private email addresses

- Change passwords often

- Have different passwords for different functions

- Use a different email address for social networking

- Do frequent virus scans

- Delete your history after using cafe computers

- Don't send personal information to unknown recipients