e-mail security

[Basil]

In the recent past, forum members have been discussing e-mail security and many have been complaining about spam.
I have this morning received from a good friend, an e-mail on this topic, the main body of which I thought of publishing in the forum for comments on the validity or otherwise, of the method outlined.

Any comments would be greatly appreciated.
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Body of e-mail


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 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 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 mai l that's been circling the net for YEARS! J ust about everything you receive in an email that is in question can be checked out at Snipes. Just go to Urban Legends Reference Pages

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.

[Sion]

Good advice, I'd say, Basil. I do all that myself (Almost fell out with someone over number 6, and I'm sure I annoy those people who send me virus alerts, and I e-mail them back with a link to Urban Legends debunking the alert ). If I could be bothered, I could harvest the address books of friends of friends of friends, having scrolled down half a mile to get to the joke at the bottom!

If I forward jokes, I usually copy it and paste it into a new e-mail - a lot less hassle.

[janeygee]

Basil,
I agree with everything your friend says, and like Sion number 6 has caused issues in the past, particularly when it's always the same people who send the false alerts, even after me telling them to check first.

I will copy your friends letter and send it to all of my contacts who need telling, but put it as though it was from a Security Journal or similar.

[C610man]

Originally Posted by Basil

In the recent past, forum members have been discussing e-mail security and many have been complaining about spam.
I have this morning received from a good friend, an e-mail on this topic, the main body of which I thought of publishing in the forum for comments on the validity or otherwise, of the method outlined.

Any comments would be greatly appreciated.
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Body of e-mail


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 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 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.

Wow talk about de-ja-vue (or however you spell it). I wrote some of that back in 98 or 99 and had it on a website for a couple yrs. Although its been re-written since the basic jist of the part I quoted came from my site.

Im really glad to see its still around and that folks have added alot more to it since.

Thanks much for posting that Basil. Kinda makes me feel good.

[Basil]

Originally Posted by C610man

Wow talk about de-ja-vue (or however you spell it). I wrote some of that back in 98 or 99 and had it on a website for a couple yrs.

Amazing C610man.....

[mal]

Suppose you have been forwarded an email or are contained in the CC.......

The damage has already been done by the person who sent you the email.
Think about it. Are there any addresses, names you don't know/recognise.
It only takes one of them to forward it again and so on. .