A Refresher Course on Forwarding Email

These are important things to do when e-mailing. Please read the letter below; even if you're sure you already follow proper procedures.Do you really know how to forward e-mails?

10% DO; 90% DO NOT…Do you wonder why you get viruses or junk mail? Do you hate it? I know I do. 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 & names. As the messages get forwarded along, the list of addresses builds, and builds, and builds. All it takes is for one person on that list to get a virus or a Trojan Horse and, without even knowing it, their computer can send it to every E-mail address that has come across their computer.

How do you do your part to help stop it ? Well, there are several easy steps to make routine:

1) When you forward an e-mail, DELETE all of the other addresses that appear in the body of the message (at the top). It only takes a second. You MUST click the "Forward" button first or 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 spellings.

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. I wish everyone would do this, hate opening all those forwards and finding junk.

5) Have you ever gotten an e-mail 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 e-mail can be forwarded on and on and can collect thousands of names and e-mail addresses.

A FACT : The completed petition is actually worth money to a professional spammer because of the wealth of valid names and e-mail addresses contained therein. If you want to support the petition, send it as your own personal letter to the intended recipient, legislator or organization. Your position is likely to carry more weight as a personal letter than a laundry list of names and e-mail address on a petition

Actually, if you think about it .... who's supposed to send the completed petition to whatever cause it supports? If you don't know, it's probably going to a spammer. And don't believe the ones that say that the e-mail is being traced, it just isn't so! I simply won't sign those petitions! I recommend that you don't sign them either.. Even if you keep getting them, just ignore them and delete them..

6) Have you received e-mails that end with something like, "Send this e-mail 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'S NOT GOING TO HAPPEN !!!!! This is a trick to get you to supply a list of e-mail addresses to spammers. It's the same thing for the ones that ask you to "keep this prayer going" or "show your support for our troops"
.... if you really want to send a prayer or support something, send a personal e-mail directly to the people or organization that you support. You can also ignore the ones that threaten you with "bad luck" if you don't forward them. The Internet does not run on luck. Spammers just want you to think it does.

If you like the message, or the joke is funny, or the pictures are cool, and you really want to share it with others, you can delete the part that says "Send this to 10 friends in the next 5 minutes" and then send it on to your friends. Believe me, we will thank you for it.

7) BEFORE you forward an 'Amber Alert', or a 'Virus Alert', or some of the other warnings, stories or news items floating around nowadays, CHECK THEM OUT.

Most of them are junk mail that's been circling the net for YEARS ! Just about everything you receive in an e-mail that is in question can be checked out at one of the fact checking websites for accuracy.

Just go to www.snopes.com or www.truthorfiction.com. It's really easy to find out if it's real or not.. If it's not, please don't pass it on. Taking these few easy steps and making them daily e-mail etiquette practice will help keep you and your friends off spam lists. One person won't stop spammers, but if we all do this, it takes away their easiest source of e-mail addresses. 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.