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Don't believe it if you get an e-mail that appears to be from the Internal Revenue Service saying you're due for a stimulus payment. According to the IRS, it's part of the latest tax-related phishing scam designed to get personal information from you such as bank account or Social Security numbers. These e-mails, often bearing the IRS letterhead, tell users they must fill out and submit a form in order for the stimulus payment to be processed. The message then says to follow a link to a website or to complete an attached document.

Remember, the IRS does NOT send unsolicited e-mail about tax account matters to taxpayers. Should you receive an e-mail claiming to be from the IRS, DO NOT REPLY, CLICK ON ANY LINKS, OR PROVIDE ANY INFORMATION. Users receiving these fraudulent IRS e-mails are encouraged to forward the message and the website URL to the IRS at phishing@irs.gov. After you forward the e-mail, delete the message.

If the IRS ever needs to contact you about a tax refund or audit, they will do so by traditional mail. When you need to access the IRS website to get information or download forms, initiate contact by typing the www.IRS.gov address into your browser window.

For more about reporting and identifying IRS e-mail scams, go to: http://www.irs.gov/privacy/article/0,,id=179820,00.html?portlet=5

Ask The Help Desk - Can I Paste Text From A Webpage Without Tables Appearing?

Question: When I'm researching new recipe ideas, I like to copy and paste text from webpages to a document. Often when I do this, the text from the webpage shows up encased in boxes or tables. This is annoying—I just want the text by itself. Is there a way to prevent this formatting from appearing? I use Windows Vista, Internet Explorer 7, and Microsoft Works Word Processor.

Answer: I agree that those boxes and tables from webpages can become an aggravation when you're working in a document created in your word processing program. Fortunately, there's an easy little trick to eliminate them. Select the text from the webpage you would like to copy. While in Microsoft Works, choose "Paste Special" from the Edit Menu instead of selecting "Paste" like you would normally do. A "Paste Special" dialog box will appear. Choose "Unformatted Text" from the list of options and then click on "OK." All the webpage text will appear in your document, but without the formatting. If you want to grab pictures along with the text when you use "Paste Special," choose "Formatted Text." With this choice, you'll see the webpage with pictures and some formatting. You may also get unwanted links or addresses, but those can be easily deleted in your document. Most word processing programs offer the "Paste Special" option including Microsoft Word.

On the Fly
http://flightstats.com - Whether you're an experienced traveler or a novice, you'll want to explore this site before you fly the next time. You'll find detailed information about each airport, including current "delay index" scores (indicating the likelihood of flight delays), weather, and user ratings. You can also check arrivals and departures for each airport, and even see the real-time progress of most commercial flights on Flight Tracker maps.

Google Ocean
http://earth.google.com/ocean - Ever wish you could go on an ocean adventure? Here's your chance! This new addition to Google Earth allows you to virtually dive below the surface of the ocean, relive exciting expeditions with ocean explorers like Jacques Cousteau, and learn about sea animals. You can save your virtual adventures to share with others, and test your knowledge about oceans all over the globe.

Restaurant Recipes
http://topsecretrecipes.com - You may be cutting back on eating out to save money these days. However, that doesn't mean you have to do without those special dishes you enjoy at chain restaurants. Visit this popular site from cookbook author Todd Wilbur to find recipes for clones of brand-name foods. It's easy to search by restaurant name or food type. And to spice up the fun, don't miss Todd's latest cooking video.

Great Grandparenting
http://grandparents.com - Grandparents will love this site's many ideas for building great relationships with their grandchildren. There's something for everyone here including suggestions for age-appropriate children's activities, vacations, meals, and toys. Visitors can also get expert advice, sign up for a weekly newsletter, and participate in online discussions.

Retirement Ready
http://socialsecurity.gov/estimator - Planning for retirement can be complicated. This helpful site enables you to get information about one critical component of it—Social Security. By providing some basic information, you can find out how much you are likely to receive in Social Security benefits. You can also create scenarios to determine the best time to start receiving your benefits.

A great deal of important information is contained within your e-mail messages—information that can be lost in an instant in the case of hard drive failure, computer viruses, or other accidents. You can help avoid these risks by backing up your e-mail message files on a regular basis and storing them to an external media such as a zip disk or CD-R.

To manually backup this information, follow the steps below for your e-mail program:

Copying E-mail Message Files to a Backup Folder Using ...
- E-mail Program: Outlook Express 6
- Computer Operating System: Windows XP

With Outlook Express open, click your cursor arrow on "Tools" located on the menu bar and select "Options..." from the resulting drop-down menu.
When the Options window opens, click on the "Maintenance" tab.
Click on the "Store Folder..." button located in the "Cleaning Up Messages" section.
When the Store Location dialog box opens, copy the file path.
Click your cursor arrow on the "Start" button and then "Run..."
Paste the file path from the Store Location dialog box in the "Open:" field of the Run window and click "OK."
When the Outlook Express window opens, click on the "Edit" tab and then choose "Select All" from the resulting drop-down menu.
Click on the "Edit" tab again, choose "Copy," and then close the window.
Create a new folder by right-clicking on your desktop, select "New," and then choose "Folder."
Name the folder (something like "E-mail Backup") and press the "enter" key.
Open this new E-mail Backup folder.
Once the folder is open, right-click in the empty space and select "Paste."
The file can now be burned to a CD or copied to your external disk drive—such as a flash drive or external hard drive. Whichever external media you choose, be sure to keep it in a safe place.

Copying E-mail Message Files to a Backup Folder Using ...
- E-mail Program: Windows Mail
- Computer Operating System: Windows Vista

With Windows Mail open, click your cursor arrow on "Tools" in the menu bar and select "Options..." from the resulting drop-down menu.
When the Options window opens, click on the "Advanced" tab.
Select the "Maintenance..." button in the "Maintenance and Troubleshooting" section.
When the Maintenance window opens, click on the "Store Folder..." button in the "Cleaning Up Messages" section.
When the Store Location dialog box opens, copy the file path.
Click your cursor arrow on "Start," then "All Programs," then "Accessories," and then "Run."
Paste the file path from the Store Location dialog box in the "Open:" field and click "OK."
Click on the "Organize" tab and then choose "Select All" from the resulting drop-down menu.
Click on the "Organize" tab again, choose "Copy," and then close the window.
Create a new folder by right-clicking on your desktop. Select "New" and then choose "Folder."
Name the folder (something like "E-mail Backup") and press the "enter" key.
Open this new E-mail Backup folder.
Once the folder is open, right-click in the empty space and select "Paste."
The file can now be burned to a CD or copied to your external disk drive—such as a flash drive or external hard drive. Whichever external media you choose, be sure to keep it in a safe place.

Copying E-mail Message Files to a Backup Folder Using ...
- E-mail Program: Mozilla Thunderbird 2.0
- Computer Operating System: Windows Vista

With Thunderbird open, click your cursor arrow on "Tools" in the menu bar and select "Account Settings..." from the resulting drop-down menu.
When the Account Settings window opens, copy the file path listed in the "Local directory:" field under the "Message Storage" section.
Click your cursor arrow on "Start," then "All Programs," then "Accessories," and then "Run."
Paste the file path from the Account Settings window in the "Open:" field and click "OK."
Click on the "Organize" tab and then choose "Select All" from the resulting drop-down menu.
Click on the "Organize" tab again, choose "Copy," and then close the window.
Create a new folder by right-clicking on your desktop. Select "New" and then choose "Folder."
Name the folder (something like "E-mail Backup") and press the "enter" key.
Open this new E-mail Backup folder.
Once the folder is open, right-click in the empty space and select "Paste."
The file can now be burned to a CD or copied to your external disk drive—such as a flash drive or external hard drive. Whichever external media you choose, be sure to keep it in a safe place.

Archiving E-mail Message Mailboxes to a Backup Folder Using ...
- E-mail Program: Apple Mail 3.1
-Computer Operating System: Mac OS X 10.5

With Mail open, select the mailboxes you would like to archive in the mailbox pane on the left. Use shift-click (holding down the "shift" key while left-clicking your mouse) to select mailboxes that are next to each other and command-click (holding down the "command" key while left-clicking your mouse) to select mailboxes that are not next to each other. (Some keyboards have an apple icon on the "command" key instead of the word "command.")
Click your cursor arrow on "Mailbox" in the menu bar and select "Archive Mailbox" from the resulting drop-down menu. A navigational window will appear.
Choose a folder or other location to save your archived mailboxes, or create a new folder by pressing the "New Folder" button. The default location is the Documents folder but you can place your archive on the desktop or on other attached drives or partitions. For this tutorial, we will create a new folder in the Documents folder called "Mail Archive." Click on the "New Folder" button and the New Folder dialog box will appear.
Type the name of your folder, in this case "Mail Archive," and click the "Create" button. The new folder will appear highlighted in the navigational window.
Click the "Choose" button. Your mailboxes will be archived into the folder you just created. If you do the same archiving procedure next week, your old archive won't be overwritten. A new archive will be created with a number appended to the file name.
The file can now be burned to a CD or copied to your external disk drive—such as a flash drive or external hard drive. Whichever external media you choose, be sure to keep it in a safe place.