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Creating an E-Mail Account for eBay Use

E-mail is the best and easiest way to communicate with eBay sellers and successful buyers. If you have your own computer and an ISP (Internet server provider), you probably have e-mail access automatically. But if you’re logging on to the Internet away from home, you might want to look into setting up a free e-mail provider.

Even if you have your own e-mail address through your ISP, you might want to consider creating another e-mail account just for your eBay business, especially if you plan to do a lot of buying or selling at eBay. An eBay-only account will be easier to manage because your eBay transactions won't get all mixed in with your personal e-mail (and vice versa) and spam e-mail will be more obvious.

Most ISPs allow you to check your e-mail from their Web sites, but commonly, you’ll be using Microsoft’s Outlook Express to check your mail on your home computer.

Google’s Gmail, Yahoo!, and Hotmail are the most popular Web-based, free e-mail providers. They are free and secure, and signing up is a snap. They all have a Mail Alert feature, which allows you to instruct Gmail, Yahoo!, or MSN Mobile to contact you through your Web-enabled cell phone when you have new e-mail. You can join Gmail at www.gmail.com, Yahoo! e-mail at www.yahoo.com, and Hotmail at www.hotmail.com.

Some commonsense rules can help you protect your account:

  • Select a password that’s difficult to guess. Use letter-and-number combinations or nonsense words that nobody else knows. Don’t use common names or words relating to you.

  • Keep passwords secret. If someone asks for your password online, you can bet it’s a scam. Never give out your password.

  • Don’t open an e-mail with an attachment from an unknown person. The attachment (another file attached to your e-mail message) could contain a virus.

  • Don’t respond to spam e-mail. Spam is online slang for harassing, offensive, or useless-but-widely-distributed messages or advertisements. If you ignore and delete such junk without even opening it, the senders will probably just go look for somebody else to bother.

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