Did you get an e-mail from me that directed you to this page? Congratulations, this means you've qualified for my lecture on responsible e-mail. Please take the time to read through this; it could save us both a lot of grief! If you've been on the Internet for more than a month, you've almost certainly heard of "SPAM", which is unsolicited e-mail advertising. If you were directed to this page by an e-mail from me, you are probably using e-mail in a way that is making you a prime candidate for receiving spam. You are also probably using e-mail in a way that is making your Internet friends more likely to receive spam. I don't know about you (or your other friends), but I'm very annoyed by junk email. Not only does it clutter up my mailbox, but it accounts for something like 25% of ALL INTERNET TRAFFIC! This means that spammers are clogging up the Internet plumbing, making things slower for everyone. And they don't even have to pay for this advertising. It takes about the same amount of time to send an e-mail to a thousand people as it takes to send an e-mail to one person. There are hundreds - perhaps thousands - of people on the Internet who make money by selling e-mail addresses to advertisers. Some offer mass advertising services online, others sell CD's with spamming software and thousands of e-mail addresses for targets. How do these guys get e-mail addresses? There are dozens of ways that they get these addresses; the one that I am going to discuss here is e-mail forwarding. E-Mails are forwarded all over the Internet. Jokes, virus warnings (real or imagined), favorite web pages -- people come across these things and like to share them with their friends. This is fine -- as long as the sender takes a few precautions to protect himself and his friends. I suggest that you follow the guidelines on this page, and ask your Internet friends to do the same. Feel free to refer them to this page if you think it is helpful. The instructions on this page are for Windows versions of the referred software. MAC software may be somewhat different, but essentially the same. Step One: Remove Existing Headers The first step in forwarding e-mail is to remove all of the existing "headers" that have accumulated in the message. The headers look something like this: Return-Path: <someone@aol.com> You may also find previous headers in the body of the email message. Delete all of these as well. This will help protect all of the folks who have already received the message, and will also cut down on the size of your forwarded message. I have received some emails that are 90% headers and 10% message. Another way to assure that no headers are forwarded is to not forward the message at all, but to select the body of the message (excluding existing headers), copy it, and then paste it into a new message. This is often simpler to do anyway, especially if the bulk of the message is existing headers that have accumulated. Step Two: Blind Carbon Copy Normally, when you send an e-mail, you put the recipient's address in the "To:" field. If you're sending an e-mail to more than one person, however, you should consider using the "Bcc:" (Blind Carbon Copy) field. When you use Bcc:, the mail will be sent to all the addresses in the field, but none of the recipients will see the other e-mail addresses. Here's a few images that show the Bcc: field (click to enlarge): Outlook Express
If you use Outlook Express, and don't see the "Bcc:" field, click "View" on the menu, and then click "All Headers." This will cause the "Bcc:" field to be displayed. In the "To:" field, enter your own email address, as you have to put something in there. Put all of the other email addresses in the Bcc: field. Netscape
To use Bcc in Netscape, first put your own email address in the To: field, then hit Enter. Another field will appear beneath the "To" field. Click the little arrow next to the field name and select "Bcc: from the list of choices that appears. Put all of the other recipients into this Bcc field. If you use a browser based email, such as hotmail, you should see the bcc; field in the mail composition window. Hotmail
Yahoo Mail
If you use AOL, you won't find a Bcc: field (unless AOL has changed since I last heard). You can send a message using Bcc, though, by putting the email address within parentheses (preferably in the Cc: field) like this: Using Blind Carbon Copy is a way to protect your friends from having their email address fall into the wrong hands, especially for emails that are likely to be forwarded again. Other Ways to Protect Your Email Box from Spammers Submitting your email address to websites If you've ever had to submit your email address to download software, or to subscribe to some service, there is a chance that your address will be used by advertisers. Often, web pages that ask for your email address have a statement that they will not divulge your email address to others, or give you the choice as to whether or not your email address will be shared. When you submit your email address to these people, you are, of course, at the mercy of their integrity. There are also websites that offer you the ability to send "postcards" or other items to your internet friends. Here, you provide both your email address and the email address of the person you want to send the item to. Now, most of these sites insist they they do not divulge the email addresses involved, but you should still use these services with a little discretion. Or with extreme paranoia. To protect your primary email address from potential advertising, you might consider setting up an alternate email address for cases like these. There are many sources for such free email accounts, including hotmail.com, globe.com, zdnet.com. Get yourself one of these secondary email accounts and use that email address when downloading software or subscribing to some service. Doing so will cause any advertising to go to the secondary email box instead of your primary email address. Learn More about Spam If you would like to learn more about spam, including ways to fight back, check some of these web pages: Coalition Against Unsolicited Commercial E-Mail http://www.faqs.org/faqs/net-abuse-faq/spam-faq/index.html http://home.bluemarble.net/~scotty/forgery.html Summing Up Spam is a fact of life on the Internet, and no one is likely to come up with a way to stop it. If you follow the guidelines on this page, though, you will reduce the chances of receiving spam and the chances of inadvertently causing your Internet friends from receiving spam. Remember that spam is not only an inconvenience to you, but is a bandwidth killer. The untold number of unsolicited emails that are sent by advertisers is slowing down transmissions on the Internet, and is likely to one day bring it to its knees. Do what you can to protect yourself, your friends, and to "save the bandwidth!"
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