Email Etiquette

This is some research I did for a friend about forwarding emails

This person sent me an excitatory political email and asked that I forward it to all my friends. I sent a reply that I would not forward it with a short explanation.

My friend responded with this question; Am I understanding this right?---If person a, b, and c's email address were in the email I forwarded to you then spammers could get the emails of a, b and c people? Also, who would that be in this situation? Can you tell?

This was my answer. There are two types of email spammers and snoopers.

Group “A” Marketers can track every email they send out for sales information. They can do this to evaluate how many people read their viral email. See these links to see how easy it is for anyone to do this; i Contact  Another company These are legitimate email tracking codes imbedded into emails to evaluate for marketing campaigns. Every commercial email you receive will be able to track if you opened the email, how long you had it open, if you clicked any link in it, and if you downloaded anything they offer. There is usually no harm in these to the sender or reader

Group “B” Others do it to capture information with what is called harvesting bots. Example 1, Example 2, Example 3 
 (As a web designer I used to put my email address on my sites and now I get hundreds of spam. One way I stopped this is to use a picture for my address) (Never click the opt out on spam unless you know the spammer is a legitimate company, see video in example 3) When you fill out forms on someone’s site you are safer than forwarding an email. However spammers can hack the databases of companies that you sent a form to. There are codes a web designer can put into what is called an httacess file to help block hackers from their database. However you are at the mercy of how secure they are. A serious hacker may be able to hack any database. Chain emails like the one you sent have little things to encourage people to forward them. Some are like the old threatening chain letters, with statements like; (if you do not forward this to all your friends you will have bad luck etc.) others like the one you sent uses less threatening statements or suggestive language that subconsciously says; (If you do not forward this you are not a Christian or a jerk and not a patriot etc.) (This is a dead give away to me that the email has a snooper.) See this site,  Another.

Spam collectors make it a business to use jokes and information that excites to harvest emails. The email can have a very real issue such as the one you sent about the problems with our elected officials, yet the way it reads is an indicator that makes me suspicious of it. Some tips  (every time you click on a link in either “A” or “B” the sender can see it, if they have imbedded a tracker. The difference between the two is the “B”’s are malicious with ulterior motives. NEVER NEVER forward an email with the addresses of other's emails. (copy and Past) the content into a new email. What all this means is that email harvester people write new emails every day that excite people to forward the email so they can collect more email addresses. They capitalize on Christian, health and political issues to make the receiver feel guilty if they do not forward it immediately.

Group “B” may also include a virus, malware or Trojan horse go one step further. They scan inside your computer to harvest every email address in your address book and anywhere in your computer.

If the above were not enough there is another problem not related to emails that everyone needs to know. Many free programs especially in the anti virus area have built in snoopers. You think you are downloading a great protection for your computer only it has a snooper program built into it. Many of the free speed up your computer programs are notorious for these problems. Do not click on the web sites that say "do a free scan to speed up your compute"r etc. Because of this I now use only Microsoft Security Essentials and have removed all others. There are some that are free of snoopers, but now my trust level is low. I barely trust Microsoft, but figure their program is less invasive and my computers are working much more problem free than when I had numerous other protection software installed. McAffee, Norton, SpyBot and some others are safer and supposedly free of snoopers. I have used both McAffee and Norton and they both slowed up my computer. When calling them about it they say it is because they are doing a better job. Microsoft Security has not slowed my computer. A couple of computer techs have told me I screwed up my computers by downloading the free security programs.

Now to the cure. There is none that I know about. Removing the chain emails of senders certainly helps, but does not insure the email does not have a snooper. That is why I would not forward the one you sent, simply because of how it read. I have forwarded a few emails such as the great video about the skeleton on a motorcycle. However I just learned it is on youtube and so I can send its youtube link which bypasses the email problems. YouTube humor

End of my reply to my friend

Some additional information.

Another problem with emails is that too often they are not true. Check every email you receive that expounds any so called issues or information as fact. Check the various validation web sites such as snopes (liberal political view) truth or fiction (Conservative view) Wickipedia  ,  About's Urban Legends or enter the topic into your search engine such as google.

Why some people send so many untrue emails is a quandary, however they may be one of the above spammers and are just writing something excretory to harvest more emails.

Do not be a sheep and forward anything because it has something you think is interesting. Check it out, be kind and respect your friends, family and contacts.

Never forward an email with others addresses in the To: or CC: area. Instead if you want to forward it first remove their addresses. Or better yet copy the information and post it into a new email so the hidden tracking codes are removed. Obviously this is a pain because the send to addresses are from you address book and are much easier to send in one lump than write each individuals address.

Read this web site's comment; "Here's the rub: how you access the blind carbon copy function will depend on your email client. Look in the on-line help for "bcc" or "Blind Carbon Copy". In Outlook, there is a BCC field that's simply not visible by default. When you compose a message hit the View menu and you'll find an item labeled Bcc field which will turn it on. In Outlook Express, hit the View menu while composing a message and you'll see an item All Headers that does the same. BCC can be a courtesy if used correctly. If you're sending email to a large number of people you can reduce the size of the message and the "To:" or "Cc:" headers that people might have to wade through by BCCing your message to them. On the other hand, it can also be somewhat rude to BCC what someone might think is a personal message to others as well. BCC. Use it responsibly." source

If you have friends or family who forward emails with your address visible to others you can start receiving more junk mail.

Comment by Stealth2Day about identity theft and phishing