December 21, 2012 AD. Known as Time's Special Witness ™™™™™™™™™™™™
Windows Vista
Privacy - Check Your Email Account for Impostors
If you've ever had suspicions that someone may be reading your email but you've never seen proof, weblog MakeUseOf details how to set up an "electronic tripwire" in your email account to keep you aware of email break-ins. The trick uses a web utility called OneStatFree to track file requests, and depends on the email snoop reading this email. Since OneStatFree will let you know if anyone tries downloading the file (and will log the time, IP address, and approximate location of the snoop), you'll know the snoop was there even if the he tries covering his tracks by marking the message as unread. If you're even slightly suspicious that someone's reading your email, the first thing you should do is change your password, but if you're still not feeling safe, this is a decent trick for finding out for sure.
Are you Sure your Email isn't being Hacked?
Here’s how to do it :
1. Sign up for a website hit counter at www.onestatfree.com. You can leave a fake name and whatever URL you want (I used Google.com for mine).
2. You will then receive a welcome email from OneStat with a text attachment called OneStatScript.txt. Download this attachment to your computer and then delete the email (you don’t want any email snoopers finding it later). But before deleting the email, write down your OneStat account number as you will need it later.
3. Change the name of the text document to something that will make the email snooper salivate such as passwordlist. Also change the file format from a text document to a website page. So make it something like passwordlist.htm .
4. Email this newly-renamed file as an attachment to the email account you want to monitor. Make sure the email subject title also lures the snooper in (maybe something like List of Passwords. You get the idea :).
5. The trap is now set. Basically if someone opens the email and opens the attachment, OneStat will record a hit. If you then log into your OneStat account say once a day, you will see how many hits you have had to your attachment.
The OneStat account page then gives you details on each “visitor” including the date and time they accessed the web document and more importantly their location and IP address!
So how does having this information help you? Well first of all, it will alert you to change your password to something stronger. Secondly, if you see the snooper’s location and you only know one or two people there then it narrows down your list of potential suspects.
By the way, I recommended signing up for One Stat because the author of the original idea mentioned them. But if you know of any other hit counter services that send text documents to your email address, then please mention them in the comments. I don’t have any financial advantage recommending One Stat so I am perfectly happy to consider alternative companies.
(By) Mark O’Neill is a blogger, writer and English tutor. Check out his blog at BetterThanTherapy.net
Filed Under: Security ¦ HowTo ¦ eMail
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