FORWARDING EMAILS – A PASSION FOR SOME
One of the first things we learn with our computers is the fun of sharing information or emails we’ve been sent by friends, with other internet users. We do this by FORWARDING the email. However, there is a very definite set of rules about doing this correctly. Do it correctly and life is beautiful, but disobey the rules and mayhem prevails ! SPAM and VIRUSES can be the result and all they do is to cause chronic irritation to the user OR to really screw up your whole internet experience. I know that all the members of the http://webvision2020.com / YOTA Forum are aware of these correct practices, and would NEVER forward in an unsafe manner, but it’s better to be sure than sorry, so a reminder follows. Please share this with all your email correspondents.
IMPORTANT!! HOW TO FORWARD EMAIL 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 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% 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 & 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 five cents
HOW DO YOU STOP THIS NONSENSE ?
(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 emails just to see
what you sent.
(5) Have you ever got 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 ain’t 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.
(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/”
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.
HERE’S A REALLY COOL IDEA!!!
Let’s send this to everyone we know (but strip my address off first, please). And send them using the BBC (Blind Carbon Copy.)
IN CONCLUSION.
If you find there is a person who persists in forwarding emails with a long list of names still there, and won’t practice ” Safe Forwarding ” after being reminded, be ruthless and block them as I’ve done for 3 stubborn emailers !
Baldwin Concert Grand Piano
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