Email Address Trust

Many people have done it, you post something on Craigslist or a classified website and you get a response within 30 seconds of your posting from an email "fakename1940@email.com".

In the days of computer hacking and big brother, do you trust an email that ends with a weird sequence of numbers on a general pop server like yahoo.com, gmail.com or msn.com? I've heard stories of people responding to an such an email address and their computers crash the next day.

One thing a lot of us that are not tech savvy don't know, your information is attached to every email you send out. From your location to your computers IP address. It's not a secret, the world wide web has everything about you.

I don't trust emails that are on a general pop server and do not consist of a believable name. My email for everything I do, business and personal, consist of my first and last name. I have a common name  and I only use reputable branded pop serves. Understanding that some people don't have access to branded pop servers, but if you must use a general pop server, I would be more prone to respond to "lucysunclefather@gmail.com" than I would lucys1944@gmail.com. It seems less believable.

Besides, I know some script writers out there that can create 1,500 emails in under 30 minutes just by adding a number at the end of an innocuous name.

Just be careful responding to emails from people you don't know personally.