Paulmarkar
03-21-2008, 06:52 PM
Thought this might be helpful to you or to someone you know. It sure helped me. Good info!
Read right down to the last one, as it makes sense!
A friend who is a computer expert received the following directly from a
system administrator for a corporate system. It is an excellent message that
ABSOLUTELY applies to ALL of us who send emails. Please read the short
letter below, even if you're sure you already follow proper procedures.
Do you really know how to forward emails? 50% of us do; 50% DO NOT.
Do you wonder why you get viruses or junk mail?
Do you hate it?
Every time you forward an email there is information left over from the
people who got the message before you, namely their email addresses and
names. As the messages get forwarded along, the list of addresses builds,
and builds, and builds, and all it takes is for some poor sap to get a
virus, and his or her computer can send that virus to every email address
that has come across his computer. Or, someone can take all of those
addresses and sell them or send junk mail to them in the hopes that you will
go to the site and he will make five cents for each hit. That's right, all
of that inconvenience over a nickel. How do you stop it? Well, there are
several easy steps. Try the following if you haven't done it before:
(1) When you forward an email, DELETE all of the other addresses that appear
in the body of the message (at the top). That's right, DELETE them.
Highlight them and delete them, backspace them, cut them, whatever it is you
know how to do. It only takes a second. You MUST click the "Forward" button
first and then you will have full editing capabilities against the body and
headers of the message. If you don't click on "Forward" first, you won't be
able to edit the message at all.
(2) Whenever you send an email to more than one person, do NOT use the To:
or Cc: fields for adding email addresses. Always use the BCC: (blind carbon
copy) field for listing the email addresses. This is the way the people you
send to will only see their own email address. If you don't see your BCC
option, click on where it says To: and your address list will appear.
Highlight the address and choose BCC: and that's it, it's that easy. When
you send to BCC: your message will automatically say "Undisclosed Recipients
in the "TO:" field of the people who receive it.
(3) Remove any "FW:" in the subject line. You can re-name the subject if you
wish or even fix spelling.
(4) ALWAYS hit your Forward button from the actual email you are reading.
Ever get those emails that you have to open 10 pages to read the one page
with the information on it? By forwarding from the actual page you wish
someone to view, you stop them from having to open many e-mails just to see
what you sent.
(5) Have you ever gotten an email that is a petition? It states a position
and asks you to add your name and address and to forward it to 10 or 15
people or your entire address book. The email can be forwarded on and on and
can collect thousands of names and email addresses. A FACT: The completed
petition is actually worth a couple of bucks to a professional spammer
because of the wealth of valid names and email addresses contained therein.
DO NOT put your email address of any petition. If you want to support the
petition, send it as your own personal letter to the intended recipient.
Your position may carry more weight as a personal letter than a laundry list
of names and email address on a petition. (And don't believe the ones that
say that the email is being traced, it just ain't so!)
Some of the other emails to delete and not forward are:
1. The one that says something like, "Send this email to 10 people and you
all see something great run across your screen." Or sometimes they'll just
tease you by saying 'something really cute will happen.' IT AIN'T GONNA
HAPPEN!!!!! (We are still seeing some of the same emails that we waited on
10 years ago!)
2. Don't let the bad luck ones scare you either, delete them, they are
trash.
3. Before you forward an 'Amber Alert', or a 'Virus Alert', or some of the
other emails floating around nowadays, check them out before you forward
them. Most of them are junk mail that's been circling the net for YEARS!
Just about everything you receive in an email that is in question can be
checked out at Snopes. Just go to <http://www.snopes.com/> www.snopes.com.
It's really easy to find out if it's real or not. If it's not, please don't
pass it on.
4. Before sending the email skip down to the bottom and remove ALL the build
up of "Virus Protection Messages" that get tacked on each time an email gets
forwarded. So please, in the future, let's stop the junk mail and the
viruses.
Finally, here's an idea!!! Let's send this to everyone we know (but strip my
address off first, please). This is something that SHOULD be forwarded, so
please don't keep all this information to yourself...share it.
Read right down to the last one, as it makes sense!
A friend who is a computer expert received the following directly from a
system administrator for a corporate system. It is an excellent message that
ABSOLUTELY applies to ALL of us who send emails. Please read the short
letter below, even if you're sure you already follow proper procedures.
Do you really know how to forward emails? 50% of us do; 50% DO NOT.
Do you wonder why you get viruses or junk mail?
Do you hate it?
Every time you forward an email there is information left over from the
people who got the message before you, namely their email addresses and
names. As the messages get forwarded along, the list of addresses builds,
and builds, and builds, and all it takes is for some poor sap to get a
virus, and his or her computer can send that virus to every email address
that has come across his computer. Or, someone can take all of those
addresses and sell them or send junk mail to them in the hopes that you will
go to the site and he will make five cents for each hit. That's right, all
of that inconvenience over a nickel. How do you stop it? Well, there are
several easy steps. Try the following if you haven't done it before:
(1) When you forward an email, DELETE all of the other addresses that appear
in the body of the message (at the top). That's right, DELETE them.
Highlight them and delete them, backspace them, cut them, whatever it is you
know how to do. It only takes a second. You MUST click the "Forward" button
first and then you will have full editing capabilities against the body and
headers of the message. If you don't click on "Forward" first, you won't be
able to edit the message at all.
(2) Whenever you send an email to more than one person, do NOT use the To:
or Cc: fields for adding email addresses. Always use the BCC: (blind carbon
copy) field for listing the email addresses. This is the way the people you
send to will only see their own email address. If you don't see your BCC
option, click on where it says To: and your address list will appear.
Highlight the address and choose BCC: and that's it, it's that easy. When
you send to BCC: your message will automatically say "Undisclosed Recipients
in the "TO:" field of the people who receive it.
(3) Remove any "FW:" in the subject line. You can re-name the subject if you
wish or even fix spelling.
(4) ALWAYS hit your Forward button from the actual email you are reading.
Ever get those emails that you have to open 10 pages to read the one page
with the information on it? By forwarding from the actual page you wish
someone to view, you stop them from having to open many e-mails just to see
what you sent.
(5) Have you ever gotten an email that is a petition? It states a position
and asks you to add your name and address and to forward it to 10 or 15
people or your entire address book. The email can be forwarded on and on and
can collect thousands of names and email addresses. A FACT: The completed
petition is actually worth a couple of bucks to a professional spammer
because of the wealth of valid names and email addresses contained therein.
DO NOT put your email address of any petition. If you want to support the
petition, send it as your own personal letter to the intended recipient.
Your position may carry more weight as a personal letter than a laundry list
of names and email address on a petition. (And don't believe the ones that
say that the email is being traced, it just ain't so!)
Some of the other emails to delete and not forward are:
1. The one that says something like, "Send this email to 10 people and you
all see something great run across your screen." Or sometimes they'll just
tease you by saying 'something really cute will happen.' IT AIN'T GONNA
HAPPEN!!!!! (We are still seeing some of the same emails that we waited on
10 years ago!)
2. Don't let the bad luck ones scare you either, delete them, they are
trash.
3. Before you forward an 'Amber Alert', or a 'Virus Alert', or some of the
other emails floating around nowadays, check them out before you forward
them. Most of them are junk mail that's been circling the net for YEARS!
Just about everything you receive in an email that is in question can be
checked out at Snopes. Just go to <http://www.snopes.com/> www.snopes.com.
It's really easy to find out if it's real or not. If it's not, please don't
pass it on.
4. Before sending the email skip down to the bottom and remove ALL the build
up of "Virus Protection Messages" that get tacked on each time an email gets
forwarded. So please, in the future, let's stop the junk mail and the
viruses.
Finally, here's an idea!!! Let's send this to everyone we know (but strip my
address off first, please). This is something that SHOULD be forwarded, so
please don't keep all this information to yourself...share it.