Security

1. What is Phishing?
   Phishing is the term coined by Internet scammers who use e-mail to "fish" for users' private information by imitating companies that are familiar to you. They try to get you to share user names, passwords, account information or credit-card numbers. Scammers copy the look and feel of a Web page from a major site to set up a nearly identical page, one that appears to be part of that company's site.
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What can I do to not get caught in a phishing scam?
There are several steps you can take to make sure you never fall for one of these scams:

1. Please remember to always be suspicious of any E-Mail that requests personal account information, such as usernames, passwords, account numbers or any other personal information. Just because it looks like it came from an authentic source, doesn't mean that it did.

2. Be cautious about opening any attachment or downloading any files from emails you receive, regardless of who sent them and that includes Gerlinda.com, we will notify you if we are sending a file that you need to open. Unsure? Call us 360-897-2278 or email us, gerlinda@gerlinda.com for verification.

3. Use anti-virus software and keep it up to date. Some phishing emails contain software that can harm your computer or track your activities on the Internet without your knowledge. Anti-virus software and a firewall can protect you from inadvertently accepting such unwanted files. You can find a link to a great free Antivirus program on our Free Security Programs page.

4. A firewall helps make you invisible on the Internet and blocks all communications from unauthorized sources. It’s especially important to run a firewall if you have a broadband connection. Our security page has a wonderful free firewall by zonelabs.

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General Questions

Help, I have AOL, and just had my website updated, but I can't see any changes yet, what happened?

1. If you are an AOL user using the AOL Browser and the screen does not "refresh", even when you click the "refresh" icon (the clock-wise arrow), you may need to force a purge of your cache.  To do so, perform the following steps:

   1. Click the "My AOL" icon at the top,
   2. Select "Preferences" from the drop-down list,
   3. Click the "WWW" icon,
   4. Click the "Advanced WWW" button,
   5. Click the "Purge Cache" button.

   This will delete all old screens that you have visited and should force a true refresh on any screen you visit after completing this procedure.

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