Are Christians more prone to having their e-mail hijacked? Why would they be? Those are two questions that I hope to answer here, because unfortunately it does seem like Christians are prone to e-mail hijacking. Several of my e-mail contacts have been hijacked in a short amount of time. It doesn’t seem like much of a story, except their common links.
First off, a lot of my Christian friends use Yahoo e-mail addresses. I don’t know why they do, and I don’t know why it is… but Yahoo e-mail accounts are particularly vulnerable to viruses and hacker software. I use Gmail, and I have never had a problem. If you are using a Yahoo e-mail account, I recommend switching to Gmail. Gmail, in my opinion is much safer. Also, Hotmail isn't very safe in my opinion and seems to be another favorite among believers.
There is one more common link among Christians and hijacked e-mail victims: Christians love chain e-mails, they build large lists and forward these things all around. Some of these are great, others not so much. While the message in the chain letters may be great, they can also have links to malware and viruses that allow hackers to hijack. You seriously need to stop sending these things, and never click a link inside of one. These messages usually show signs of being forwarded to you IE: “FWD” is before the subject line.
The Christians I have contact with, deal in high volume mailing lists because they work with Christian artists and other types of Christian professionals. If you’re going to build large e-mail lists, you need to make sure your account is secure; change your password often, use Gmail it’s safer (again in my opinion), don’t click every link you see and don’t open every e-mail and or attachment. What happens is, once you’re hacked… these viruses use your trusted name, e-mail, and other information to hack your closest friends! So, in a way our fellowship and unity with one another, makes us all vulnerable, but we can still be smart and take precautions.
So, are Christians more vulnerable to e-mail hijacking? Not because they’re being targeted or persecuted, but because they aren’t taking proper precautions and while we can trust each other, we don’t have to fall like dominoes when one of us is compromised.
What to look out for in particular:
Look out for e-mails from friends containing nothing, but links or an advertisement. Pay attention to your friends writing styles and use signatures, so they can tell you apart from hijackers. Don’t put your signature on auto-pilot…. hand type it every time. I use a simple signature that I can type quickly. Don’t program your signature in, because then it will automatically go in any e-mail sent from anyone using your account. Be safe, and just because you can trust your friends… doesn’t mean you can trust their e-mail account!
Today, if you want to forward something… forward this article to help prevent any more Christians or other people from being a victim.
If you want to share inspiration, there are safer ways like posting it on our Christian Forum instead of forwarding an e-mail.
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