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April 2000

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New Braunfels, TX (830) 609-0361 FAX (830) 606-1948
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October News

Newsletter #7.
October has come and it's time for the time to change. Halloween is approaching and we will once again face all the little ghouls and goblins of the evening. We are also seeing a small change in the weather, a welcome change. the nights should be cooler and the full moon should be fabulous. Have a super October and enjoy your Halloween!

Technical Support...Caller ID...anonymous calls.
All of our technical support phone numbers are directed to answering machines after business hours and if our staff is busy on another line. Please leave a message if you wish to speak with one of us. Our technical support staff does try to return all calls. Those calls are made often from many different locations including other customer's businesses and residences. For this reason, if you currently subscribe to Southwestern Bell's Caller ID service and will not accept anonymous calls, our technicians won't be able to return your call. We respect the privacy of our customers and must use *67 to ensure their privacy when calling from their phone. So, please do not assume we did not return your call.

Junk E-Mail (SPAM - inedible kind).
Do you receive lots of junk email messages from people you don't know? It's no surprise if you do. Just as more people use the email as part of their daily routine, many marketers use email messages to pitch their products and services. Some consumers say they find unsolicited commercial emails - also know as "SPAM" - annoying and time consuming; others say they have lost money to bogus offers that arrive via email. We endeavor to avoid junk email SPAM. We do not participate in marketing strategies. We respect your privacy and do not release email addresses or account information to anyone.

What is SPAM?
SPAM is Unsolicited Bulk or Commercial E-Mail. It floods the internet with many copies of the same message, in an attempt to force the message onto people who would not otherwise choose to receive it. If you receive a spammed message you do have some options. There is no "easy" way to get the spam stopped. Generally, if you reply or attempt to unsubscribe from their server all this does is confirm that your e-mail address is "live" and your e-mail address ends up sold to other spammers. SPAM has to be dealt with one at a time. Before trying to determine where the e-mail originated from, you should realize that the message will have some amount of truth, but all or most of the information may be forged. If you feel up to the challenge, tracking a spammed message is intensive. There are many sites on the internet that give very specific instructions on how to track a spammed message, and also the best agencies to report it to. There is an enormous amount of information out there so the best way to get started is to go to your favorite search engine and type in the word SPAM. Be prepared, you will get sites about the canned meat product, but you will also get many sites concerning SPAM email.

*continuing information about SPAM in next month's newsletter*

Tips, suggestions, questions, or comments? Please email newsletter@the-cia.net

Thanks! THE-CIA.net Staff