Last week, I received an email from some unknown company asking me to go to their site and enter my SSN. I’ve never heard of the company. I responded by letting my security software know the email was spam.

Today I received an email from a client. It seems the firm is changing their accounting, payroll, finance firm. While the client sent contact information for their suppliers to the new company, they didn’t think to tell us about it and the new company didn’t think to check before emailing. The email I just received apologized and asked everyone to please go out to the new firm’s site. I clearly wasn’t the only one who properly responded to an unknown company asking for personal information.

People need to more clearly consider their actions in the internet age. All contact with people outside your organization need to be considered in the same way as marketing — messages that set an image for your company.