A few weeks back, spammers began circulating an email that appears to come from E-ZPass, and the message has just continued to be pushed out. The spam messages have been targeting customers in the 14 states that make up the E-ZPass Interagency Group (IAG). The phishing email calls recipients to click on link in order to pay for an unpaid toll and aims to extract money from the user.

The Nebraska prison system is offering a new email program to county and state inmates at the Hall County Jail. Inmates can purchase email transactions at the commissary in the same way that they can purchase snacks or envelopes. The emails cost $2 for a weekly subscription or $8 for a monthly subscription. The emails can include up to 1,000 characters per message. Prisoners can access emails at a kiosk in the prison.

Sony Nashville has leaked the email address of country star Brad Paisley on Twitter. The move comes in response to Paisley leaking his own music without their permission on Twitter. Paisley tweeted about an overflowing inbox and then discovered that Gary Overton, Chairman and CEO of Sony Nashville, was behind the leak.

Why are email newsletters so popular among publishers? Well, for one thing the open rates are much higher than on social media channels. Tech journalist Klint Finley revealed that his personal blog has about 320 subscribers and has about a 20 percent open rate, about 64 readers per email. While he has more than 7,000 Twitter followers, he says that a very successful post is usually clicked by about 20 people on Twitter.

California salad-bar chain Mixt Greens has used email and mobile to help drive traffic at local stores and increase revenue. The restaurant chain teamed up with mobile loyalty firm Thanx to encourage restaurant visitors to sign up for their loyalty program while in the store. From there, customers are invited to opt-in to the chain's email newsletter where they are sent targeted offers based on their location and past behavior. Customers can also add a credit card to the mobile platform to make it easier to pay in-store. Within three months of launching the program, Mixt Greens signed up about …

Uber is using email to help rally grassroots support against a bill in California, which would increase the costs of the app taxi service. The email encourages registered users in California to put pressure on State Senators not to pass AB 2293, a bill that would require Uber drives to carry more commercial insurance. "We need your help. Let your representatives know that California voters don't support laws that hamper innovation and growth simply to protect special interests," Uber wrote in the email.

The parents of James Foley have released an email sent by the American journalist's kidnappers. In the August 12th email, ISIS militants claimed that Foley, who was beheaded by the organization, would be the first of many Americans to die. ISIS called the email "a message to the American government and their sheep-like citizens." In the threatening message, the group demanded a ransom or prisoner swaps in order for Foley to be released.

The University of Texas has cautioned its employees to beware of spam emails that claim to come from the university. According to the IT department at the university, Russian spammers have been sending out malicious emails claiming to come from the university. The phishing messages try to encourage opens with subject lines like "Your Salary Review Documents."

Open PGP (Pretty Good Privacy) technology is helping cloud email users encrypt emails stored in the cloud. The tools from companies including BitLocker and DiskCryptor bring a professional level of encryption keys to these messages which would otherwise be exposed to snooping eyes. It does require both senders and receivers to make use of the technology.

Spammers are targeting the customers of JPMorgan Chase & Co with a phishing email campaign telling recipients that their account passwords need to be changed. The email encourages the bank's customers to link to a site, which asks them to sign in, and in turn steals their banking credentials. The bank said that the email looks real, as the design is based on a screen grab from an authentic email sent by the bank.