Panama Forum

tbh
Joined 2013
Posts: 52

9 years ago

Email Woes

9 years ago

This isn't directly related to living in Panama but it certainly applies to those who visit, and I think there are probably as many posters here who live outside Panama as in, so this should be germane to travel for many of us.

When I travel I typically use Hotmail for my email with Yahoo Mail as the alternate. The pattern has been that every time I go to a new country they both block my email for days, or until I can break through their wall of "security" which isn't very well thought out, IMO. The usual pattern is that when either of those two services see something irregular, like signing in from a new location, they go into "Security Mode" and block all my email. They then want to send a code to the other email account which I then give back to them in order to verify my identity/ownership-of-the-account so they can let me back into my email. The problem is when I go to another country they both go into security mode and both want to send a code to the other (blocked) account - Catch-22. In addition, many of them want us to give them a mobile phone number which, unless we jump through some hoops in the new country, we can't use or access.

This same thing happened a year ago and I had no email in MX. When I got back home I called Yahoo and the support rep had me set up some security secret questions in order to bypass the Catch-22 impasse, and that worked for the next 3 trips to MX and CR. Well, on this last trip they renegged on that method and would not ask the questions; instead the only thing they wanted to do was to send a code to another blocked account! They offered no way to contact them via email or by phone. The phone number system at Yahoo I used a year ago (after returning) now says that they've changed their policy and we don't get to talk to any person. So, even my MJ was of no help for this problem. None of the links provided by either of the services dealt with email blockage in a foreign country. In the past they would eventually relent and allow me access but not this time.

The solution, this time ...
To review, Hotmail and Yahoo had both insisted on my giving them an alternate email address, all of which were blocked by them in a foreign country, and they offered no other alternative even though I had security questions filed with each of them. Yahoo says it gives us a choice between sending a code or the security questions but they did not. Finally, after 6 days thinking that they would finally relent (as before) but didn't, I decided to try setting up a new Yahoo account from Panama. Of course, they immediately wanted a mobile number, something which I didn't have. But they allowed me to dummy one in as long as it had a legitimate US area code. At least they didn't insist on sending me a code to that phone number to set up the account. Then Hotmail had a long form for confirming my ownership of the account which I filled out including past subjects to messages, and recipient addresses of recently Sent messages as well as some previously established security questions. At least then I had an unblocked email address to give them. Next, we did the sending of codes to the alternate addresses, first to the new Panama address to get the Hotmail address opened, then I went to Yahoo and had a code sent to the Hotmail account in order to open the Yahoo account. What a monumental pain in the ass!

I've never liked having all this information linked together as the account administrators keep insisting on. Once a hacker gets into one they can easily go to the others. Just Sunday there was a segment on NPR about identity theft and how sloppy email management is responsible. Both the user and the online businesses are responsible. It's well documented that the search engines, email providers, and networking sites are very interested in compiling profiles of everyone's online activity. They seem much more interested in tracking and data mining than they are in the security and privacy of our accounts. By the way, the first thing gmail asks for is a phone number so I've never tried using it -- I just imagined the same dilemma. Did I remember to say Argh? (... or other more colorful terms)

Kovalenko & Vera Attorneys at Law in Panama

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