The following tip was sent in by Anne who is one of our subscribers. We thought it was an excellent article about one of the most misused of all email functions – forwarding email. Thanks Anne. Very well done!
Do you really know how to forward e-mails?
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 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 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 way your recipients will only see their own e-mail address, not anyone else’s. If you don’t see your BCC in Outlook Express/Windows Mail, click View in the compose window toolbar and check “All Headers”. In other email programs try clicking on where it says To: and your address list will appear – then highlight the address and choose BCC: and that’s it, it’s that easy. When you send to BCC: (and with no address in the “To:” field) 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 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 a couple of bucks 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. Your position may 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 is supposed to send the petition in to whatever cause it supports? And don’t believe the ones that say that the e-mail is being traced, it just ain’t so!)
Just about everything you receive in an e-mail that is in question can be checked out on Snopes.com. 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.
I’ve sent similar information to a number of people I correspond with and they seem to think that I’m just making a big fuss about nothing. It takes such a little bit of time to use the above procedure and makes things so much better for everyone. Hopefully, they’ll take your advice and change their habits. Thanks for sharing the information with everyone!
All good gutsy stuff but I would add a couple of points if I may. re Petitions….At least here in Australia such emails have no legal validity as all petitions to our civic leaders must have a personal signature attached. When I get the email variety I just junk it!
As to Snopes etc, it works quite well to just Google the first few words or phrase to check for validity.
Bob Palmer
A well written article by Anne, to which every email user should adhere, but no matter how many times it is drummed into the brains of many, a large percentage of them ignore the advice.
I have been using email for many years in the same way the article describes, and articles similar to this have been published many times over the years, thanks to TC & EB, from whom I have learned much in the use of computers.
Great advice!I always use BCC. and delete all addressess before pressing the send button. So far have never had any problems.
I know I need to tell friends what they are doing but some people think you are telling them something they don’t think is wrong and you are being “smart”. It is so irritating to have to delete all the names and addresses. Some of the addresses and names are people I have never heard of and others such as mutual friends don’t want the same e.mail 5 or 6 times. It is incredible how much I have to delete sometimes.
I have gmail on my droid phone and am unable to highlight and delete forwarded email address’ as described here.
The article was written for email programs — not email apps on Android.
I don’t know how many timesI have told people about this subject but they seem too thick to understand. I keep getting emails forwarded to me with pages of addresses on them. I will have another try.
Thanks for this wonderful article. I did not know this information. I will definetly follow them and i have shared this with my friends too.
I have done all these things for years and like many of the others, the people I send to just don’t take any notice. Some have said “Oh I can’t be bothered.” Or “I forgot how to do it.” All sorts of lame excuses. Ah well, one can only keep trying. I just hope I don’t get targeted because my email address appears in their lists.
One of the worst offenders is a very intelligent person and I can’t understand why he persists in forwarding emails with everything attached.
As has already been stated you can tell and explain to people but it seems to be too hard for them to delete the addresses when in fwd.At times I have had up to 60 addresses to delete.Also delete the Incredimail adv that seems to come in with many
Thanks for this article have sent it to the offenders
Juel
That is the only way that I have ever forwarded email. You are right, some people just don’t get it. I have received emails that have a couple hundred names listed that they have sent mail out to, and the list seems to go on forever. In that case I do not forward the email. Thanks for the (as ever) this important information). Once again will forward to my friends whom need reminding. Hopefully, they will get the message. Thank you.
YEA for you Anne. I have always done this and tried to get my email buddies to do the same. This is usually to no avail, but I will try again and forward your article to them. Maybe it will work this time, at least a few might pay attention.
I have been deleting addresses and names from emails since 2002. Some have taking hints and others not. You think it was major chore.
Why are people so stubborn? Like the others above, I sent this information to all my friends and to anyone that I want to forward an e-mail too. I’ve actually had a couple of people who got quite mad about it and yet they still wonder where all their problems could be arising from. Hard to make people understand how important this can be so maybe with all of us adding our 2¢ worth they hopefully will listen.
Is there any way to block the people that send their emails with so many in the “to” address? Most of them are friends and like someone here said, they don’t don’t a lot of these people.