from: Lucky Lady,

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 build's, and build's, and build's, 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 names and 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 names and 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 the people you send to will only see one name and 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. If that phrase does not appear, type your own e-mail address in the "TO" field, but put everyone else's in the BCC field.

(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.

NEVER, NEVER, SEND AS ATTACHMENT.
Because then all the names & addresses will be attached to the e-mail.

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. (AMEN!) If you can't forward from that page, "Copy" the info and then open a new email blank page and "Paste".

(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 can use it supports?

And don't believe the ones that say that the e-mail is being traced, (it is just not so!)

One of the main ones I hate is the ones that say something like,

-Send this e-mail to 10 people and you'll see something great run across your screen.

-Or sometimes they just tease you by saying something really cute will happen.

IT'S NOT 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)

Before you forward an Amber Alert, Bill Gates giving you money, what all cell phones can do, a Virus Alert, or some of the other ones floating around nowadays.

PLEASE Check them out before you forward them.

OR BEST thing to do is JUST HIT DELETE and into the TRASH IT GOES.

Most of them are junk mail that have been circling the net for YEARS!

Just about everything you receive in an e-mail that is in question,

CAN BE CHECKED OUT AT SNOPES.

Just go to - http://www.snopes.com/ - THEN ADD SNOPES TO YOUR FAVORITES,

It is really easy to find out if it is real or not.

IF IT IS 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 name and address off first, PLEASE).

This is something that SHOULD be forwarded.

Lucky Lady

AKA: Lady Luck

The truth about E-mail Petitions

To whom it all concerns, Just a word to the wise.

E-MAIL PETITIONS ARE NOT ACCEPTABLE TO CONGRESS, or any other municipality.

To be acceptable petitions must have a signed signature and full address.

Almost all e-mail that ask you to add your name and forward on to others are similar to that mass letter years ago that asked people to send business cards to the little kid in Florida who wants to break the Guinness Book of Records for the most cards.

All it was and all this e-mail is is to get names and "cookie" tracking info for tele-marketers and spammers to validate active e-mail accounts for their own purposes.

Any time you see an e-mail that says forward this on to "10" of your friends, sign this petition, or you'll get good luck or whatever, has either an e-mail tracker program attached that tracks the cookies and e-mails of those folks you forward to or the host sender is getting a copy each time it gets forwarded and then is able to get lists of "active" emails to use in spam e-mails or sell to others that do.

If you want to forward stuff like this because it's interesting.
Take off all the "front" info and all the forwards and DON'T add your name to them.

Take care.

Forward this to others and you will be providing a good service to your friends,
and will be rewarded by not getting 30000 spam e-mails in the future

I always doubted if these e-mail petitions ever accomplished anything.

NOW, I am going to DELETE ALL PETITIONS, sent to me from who ever,
NO MATTER WHAT THEY PROMOTE.

If anyone can show me where a petition has ever had any results I will reconsider.

NOTE: there are very very few petitions that allow you to sign up on the internet,
and those have specific web sites you must go to in order to do so.

GIVE EVERYBODY A BREAK BY NOT FORWARDING ALL THOSE PETITIONS.

JUST HIT DELETE AND INTO THE TRASH IT GOES.

ATTORNEY'S ADVICE
NO CHARGE:

Read this and make a copy for your files in case you need to refer to it someday. Maybe we should all take some of his advice! A corporate attorney sent the following out to the employees in his company.

1. The next time you order checks have only your initials (instead of first name) and last name put on them. If someone takes your checkbook, they will not know if you sign your checks with just your initials or your first name, but your bank will know how you sign your checks.

2. Do not sign the back of your credit cards.
Instead, put "PHOTO ID REQUIRED".

3. When you are writing checks to pay on your credit card accounts, DO NOT put the complete account number on the "For" line. Instead, just put the last four numbers. The credit card company knows the rest of the number, and anyone who might be handling your check as it passes through all the check processing channels won't have access to it.

4. Put your work phone # on your checks instead of your home phone. If you have a P.O. Box, use that instead of your home address. If you do not have a P.O. Box, use your work address. Never have your SS# printed on your checks.(DUH!) You can add it if it is necessary. But if you have it printed, anyone can get it.

5. Place the contents of your wallet on a photocopy machine. Do both sides of each license, credit card, etc. You will know what you had in your wallet and all of the account numbers and phone numbers to call and cancel. Keep the photocopy in a safe place. I also carry a photocopy of my passport when I travel either here or abroad. We've all heard horror stories about fraud that's committed on us in stealing a name, address, Social Security number, credit cards.

Unfortunately I, an attorney, have first hand knowledge because my wallet was stolen. Within a week, the thieve(s) ordered an expensive monthly cell phone package, applied for a VISA credit card, had a credit line approved to buy a Gateway computer, received a PIN number from DMV to change my driving record information online, and more.

But here's some critical information to limit the damage in case this happens to you or someone you know:

1. We have been told we should cancel our credit cards immediately. But the key is having the toll free numbers and your card numbers handy so you know whom to call. (make a photo copy of cards & phone numbers) Keep those where you can find them.

2. File a police report immediately in the jurisdiction where your credit cards, etc., were stolen. This proves to credit providers you were diligent, and this is a first step toward an investigation (if there ever is one).

But here's what is perhaps most important of all:
(I never even thought to do this.)

3. Call the 3 national credit reporting organizations immediately to place a fraud alert on your name and Social Security number. I had never heard of doing that until advised by a bank that called to tell me an application for credit was made over the Internet in my name. The alert means any company that checks your credit knows your information was stolen, and they have to contact you by phone to authorize new credit.

By the time I was advised to do this, almost two weeks after the theft, all the damage had been done. There are records of all the credit checks initiated by the thieves' purchases, none of which I knew about before placing the alert. Since then, no additional damage has been done, and the thieves threw my wallet away, and someone turned it in. It seems to have e stopped them dead in their tracks.

Now, here are the numbers you always need to contact about your wallet, etc., If it has been stolen:

1.) Equifax: 1-800-525-6285
2.) Experience (formerly TRW): 1-888-397-3742
3.) Trans Union : 1-800-680-7289
4.) Social Security Administration (fraud line): 1-800-269-0271

We pass along jokes on the Internet;
we pass along just about everything.

But are you willing to pass this information along?
It could really help someone that you care about.