Hello all,

I'm putting together a "how to" email note that will help you and your friends cut down on the dreaded Spam. Everybody does things a little differently but the principals I write about will apply to all. Whatever email client (software) you use the first step will be going to the help button. Usually if you click on help a secondary screen will pop up that has an index and search function. In the search box type Bcc then hit the Enter key. Bcc stands for blind carbon copy, similarly Cc stands for carbon copy. What you want to do is find out how to enable the Bcc function for your email software. Follow the instructions to enable that function ... end of step one!

When you receive an email that you want to pass on then open it up to the original text or picture. Then hit your forward button. It's best to clean up the email before you forget. When you forward an email you are also sending out the addresses of all of those who either sent it to you or those on the receiving end like you were. So, clean up that text by deleting the headers (the to and from, and cc). Add any comments that you would like to and your ready for part 3!

Part three is when all of your friends will love you forever! The first thing to do on part three is to put your email address in the To: box then you will be adding your friends into the Bcc: box. By bypassing the Cc option and going to Bcc nobody will be able to see the other email addresses that this email was sent to. Like I said, your friends will love you!

Example:

To: You (xyz@hotmail.com)

Cc:

Bcc: all of the people you want to send this to!

A couple of points ... yes you will be sending this to yourself but you can delete it when it comes in. If everyone would do this the amount of Spam would decrease over time because people wouldn't have access to all of those email addresses that come attached to your email forwards. And finally, get a hotmail account and keep your ISP email account private. I have about 7 different email addresses but only really use 3. I have my ISP (like EarthLink or Comcast), my web site addresses, and a couple of hotmail accounts that I use one for software registrations, newsletter subscriptions, and for new friends that I'm not sure are new friends yet! I do not recommend Yahoo or Google (gmail) because of their privacy policies and their ad marketing practices. And add to that EarthLink, and probably others, collect user information that you need to opt out on.

That's it. I wrote this for an extended family member and she has my permission to mass forward this. If anyone has any questions or needs help with this you can contact me at the email address donjr at hotmail dot com.

That is your last lesson for the night! There is software called bots that scan the web for email address. If you leave your email address on a discussion board, and they are all catalogued by the search engines out there, you have defeated the bot because it is looking for the @ and . symbols.

I do hope this helps you all. Happy Thanksgiving!!

Don

November 27, 2005