I really liked this email I got from my Aunt so I posted it on the blog. The email read like this:
Please read and understand the following? We don't want to make a Spammer's day.
Hopefully we all do this anyway, but just in case you have friends who do not, please forward this
on.
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 e-mails. Please read the short letter below, even if you're sure you already follow proper procedures.
Do you really know how to forward e-mails?
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 e-mail there is information left over from the people who got the message before you, namely their e-mail 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 E-mail 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 e-mail, 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 head ers 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 e-mail to more
than one person, do NOT use the To: or Cc: fields for adding e-mail
addresses. Always use the BCC:(blind carbon copy) field for listing the
e-mail addresses. This is the way the people you send to will only see
their own e-mail 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 e-mail you are reading. Ever get those e-mails 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 on a ny
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'll 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. I don't let the bad luck ones scare me
either, they get trashed.
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 a Snopes. Just go to
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.
So please, in the future, let's stop the
junk mail and th e 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 do it.
Thanks for reading and helping the spammers
starve!
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