How to forward e-mail appropriately

HOW TO FORWARD E-MAIL APPROPRIATELY

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 &

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:

 

(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 capabilitiesagainst 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 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.

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.

(Actually, if you think about it, who's supposed to send the petition in to

whatever cause it supports And don 't believe the ones that say that the

email is being traced, it just aint so!)

 

(6) One of the main ones I hate is the ones that say that 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 AINT GONNA HAPPEN!!!!! (Trust me, I'm still seeing some

of the same ones that I waited on 10 years ago!) I don't let the bad luck

ones scare me either, they get trashed. (Could be why I haven't won the

lottery)

 

(7) Before you forward an Amber Alert, or a Virus Alert, or some of the

other ones 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/ http://www.snopes.com/

 

Its 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 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.