YOUR INTERNET SURVIVAL GUIDE

This edition includes the following articles:

• E-Mail Spoofing
• The BEST New Tool For Sending Files
• Sales Tax on ALL Online Sales?
• Out of Nowhere Gets New Design. You, too?
• Out of Nowhere Wins Award
• A Call for Testimonials

E-mail Spoofing

At first it's startling.  Then it's just annoying.

All of a sudden your email inbox fills with "returned" email that you didn't send.  It doesn't make sense. You wonder if someone has hijacked your email program to send out spam.  No they haven't, but what has happened is not exactly comforting, either.  Someone is posing as you.
 
Think about it. Spammers never use their own "return address", so at random, they use others'.  When they use yours, all of their bounced spam lands in your inbox.  How rude!
 
Every time this happens to me, I wish I could set up an automatic electric shock that would travel back to that "Poser" and flow through to his keyboard for a well deserved jolt.  Unfortunately, that's not possible, yet.

What is the solution, then? 
Time. 
It will pass. 
There is no way to prevent someone from posing as you in his/her email.  Until it passes, you can just delete the offending emails or set up a rule in your Outlook to automatically delete them or put them in your Junk E-Mail box.  We have instructions on how to do this on our website here.
 
Dealing with unethical, illegal or even dangerous people is just a part of life on the internet.  Our goal is to help you know what you can do to protect yourself.  Spoofed email is not dangerous.  It's an annoyance, but that's about all.

The Best New TOOL for Sending Files

In business, we all need to share files -- photos, documents or spreadsheets.  Most of us will just attach the file to an e-mail message and send it. This has worked fairly well in the past, but is quickly becoming a problem.  Why?

• Files are becoming bigger and it takes longer to send the file by e-mail (or it may be too big for email, altogether.)
• Many e-mail services are blocking emails with attachements for security reasons.
  

A Fantastic Solution for Sending Files
We recommend an online service called YouSendIt. This digital delivery company serves both business and individuals. You may use the service on-line without having to sign up. (The file recipient doesn't have to sign up either!) You can also sign up for their free service that installs a small program on your computer, making sending files even easier. You will be able to send, receive and track files on-demand.
 
Here are the features and limitations of the free service:

• Send files up to 100 MB with a 1 GB monthly download limit.
• Allow up to 100 downloads of every file.
• Address book - Keep track of your friends' and family's email addresses in one handy location.
• Files remain available for 7 days - Give your recipients a week to download the files you've sent.
• HIPAA Compliant (National Standards to Protect the Privacy)

Visit YouSendIt.com

Sales Tax on ALL Online Sales? This sounds like one of my nightmares.  What if, all of a sudden, we have to charge sales tax on all of our out-of-state customers?  This would mean that if I did sales in 50 states, I would need 50 sales tax IDs and I would have to file 50 sales tax returns (each one different) every month or quarter.  YIKES!    Luckily, this is only a nightmare at this point, but did you know that New York state just passed a law about Internet sales to New York residents?  If you have an online store and you sell to New York residents, you need to know about this and perhaps make adjustments to your ecommerce program to collect the tax.    What?  Aren't there any exemptions?  YES, thank goodness!    This law is set up to force the larger internet companies (Like Amazon.com) to collect and pay sales tax on sales to people in New York.  If you sell less than $10,000 worth of goods to New York residents, you are exempt from collecting and paying the tax.  This means that Out of Nowhere and most of our clients are exempt.  However, if you think you may hit that magic number for your total New York sales, please contact us so we can take care of the website part of the solution.   With New York taking the lead, it becomes much more likely for other states to follow suit.  As we learn about changes in the laws regarding online sales, we'll pass it on to you.  Still, you should always contact your accountant or tax attorney to continue to stay legal in this ever-changing Internet environment.

What Do You Think?

Our best marketing tool is a personal referral from a happy customer.

If you like the service we have provided you, we invite you to write a short "testimonial" for us to put on our website. We have created a new page just for your voice.

Why take the time?

• You'll be supporting small business!
• You will be featured on our testimonial page.
• We'll create a link to your website, which can drive more traffic to you and can potentially increase your ranking in the search engines.
• Because you're a really nice person!

We would be so grateful for your contribution.

Email your testimonial to info@outofnowhere.net

 

Read Our Archives

Email Masking
Adding FAQ Pages to Your Website
Add Simple Online Sales With PayPal
Refer-A-Friend Form
Drowning In Spam
Setting Up a Junk Mail Folder
Save Your Computer and Your Website
Updgrade or Buy New - Your Computer
Backing Up Your Data
Are There Spies in Your Computer?
Safe Shopping On the Internet
What You Can Do to Improve Your Website's Ranking
Getting in the Search Engines
Reciprocal Links
Marketing Outside of the Web

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