Pen Pal Safety Tips

• NOTICE: Click here for important information about safe surfing from the Federal Trade Commission.
• It's best not to use your "real" email account.
• It's a good plan to set up a web-based free email account such as a Hotmail email account. This way, if you start receiving unwanted email, it's an easy matter to delete your Hotmail account and start a new one.
• Only use your first name.
• Do not give out personal information such as your last name, home address, work address, or telephone number.
• Never share a password for an Internet game or chat room with the online pen pal.
• Notify Write a Senior Citizen if you receive an obscene message.
• Be careful what you say about others as email can be easily forwarded. Never assume that your email messages are private nor that they can be read by only yourself or the recipient.
• Never send chain letters. It is a nuisance
• Never assume that the person you are communicating with is the person they say they are. It's just too easy to pretend or provide false information with email. Always be cautious in this regard.
• Be extremely careful if you want to actually meet your pen pal in person. This is not recommended by Write a Senior Citizen. It's best to just keep your online friendship online. Avoid meeting in person.
• Do not pursue any friendships if the contact wants to borrow money for whatever reason and however genuine it sounds, and do not reveal financial details of your own.
• Don't hesitate to contact Write a Senior Citizen if you want to change your email address or remove your page at Write a Senior Citizen for any reason. Please use our Change Form for this purpose.
• Finally, you are under no obligation to "respond" to any email you receive. If the email looks suspicious, or you don't like the tone of the email, don't respond. Just delete the email.

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