Monday, August 24, 2009

I dunno. My friend set it up.

Creating a web based email account consists largely of filling out forms. It can be time consuming and tedious, but it is rarely particularly difficult. So there's really no reason, if you want a web based email account, not to set it up yourself. It avoids conversations that go something like this:
"I can't log in to my email account." "
Are you sure you typed everything in correctly?"
"Yes."
"Go ahead and click on Password Recovery. That'll get you your password."
"It says What's your frequent flyer number. What's that mean?"
"Just type in your frequent flyer number in that box. It's your secret question."
"I don't have a frequent flyer number. Why is it asking me for one? Am I supposed to set one up?"
"When you set up your account, you chose a secret question. It's whatever you put for your answer."
"Oh. My friend set it up. Is it his frequent flyer number? I don't know what his frequent flyer number is."
(No, but he knows your username, password, and secret answer. Maybe he changed the password and that's why you can't log in. In fact, even now he could be sending threatening emails to the President of the United States from your email account because he thinks getting you a visit from the Secret Service would be reeealy funny.)
You might need to contact your friend and get that information from him.

Remember, if two people know a secret, it's only a secret if one of them is dead. Don't let your friend set up your email account for you ranks just above Don't tell anyone your password on the How to keep your account secure list.

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