By Bruce Schlabaugh

I got an email from Aunt Judy.

It was quite a surprise. My Aunt Judy has been dead for several years. I also get emails from myself from time to time.

These are examples of spammers hijacking email addresses. They also get a list of your friends and send them fake emails enticing them to click into their sites attaching your name to the message. The email tricksters are out in force. We have all heard about the dirty tricks pulled by the Russians, as they hacked into various computers and utilized social media to advance their agenda.

Emails and social media are wonderful things. We send our whole newspaper electronically to our printer in Pueblo. We transfer ads and stories back and forth all day long. We are totally reliant on the web. We have also been caught up in scams from time to time. I think it has happened to everyone.

One of our advertisers read in AARP that the Medicare scammers are already at work trying to trick recipients into divulging personal information. When someone sends you a suspicious email, check out the address line on top – http://www.southwest airlinesbobjones .com is not the real site. Or this one: kathy.renner806@utopia.ocn.ne.jp. Kathy is a friend of mine but that is not even close to her email address.

All in all we all love the Internet,  but be cautious. There are thousands of unscrupulous people bombarding your email with false information.