How strangers can obtain your email address. + Using B.c.c:

This document will cover the following;

How strangers can obtain your email address.

Four Rules to guard against it happening.

Using Blind Carbon Copy to hide addresses.

Back to Freeware

How strangers can obtain our email addresses?

Four ways;

1. When you have subscribed to a newsletter, a database of addresses is compiled. These can be copied illegally, sold, or hacked into.

2. Leaving your real address on a Bulletin board (electronic notice board). These are “specific interest” websites where you leave a question on a community notice board, to have it answered by other users with the same interests. Eg. Horses, Pop stars, computer problems. Unfortunately, there are programs that scan all message boards for addresses, with the purpose of selling the list to distributors. If you must supply an address to register with the Newsgroup, make your address unusable. These programs (or Bots) gather text with the “@” symbol, so luckily humans can read.

3. MSN Messenger Service, is a private chat room facility. Students love it, parents think it’s safer that public chat rooms (ICQ), but there are Bots that identify “@” in texts that are transmitted through the typed transmission between receivers. Hence you are warned by Microsoft not to give you address over these live messages.

4. The biggest Offender - You, and Forwarded emails! One letter I receive had been forwarded 4 times and contained over 60 blue underlined email addresses. You’ve seen them I know, a joke maybe, and have probably just forwarded it on yourself to perhaps a dozen of your friends and family. And you wonder how strangers can obtain our email addresses. You are not alone though, children are very quick to pass things around, classmates on msn messenger, pen-pals overseas, chat room contacts, it’s frightening really - but not such a surprise.

Four Rules to guard against it happening.

1. If you receive newsletters from unknown companies, do not unsubscribe. That will inform them that your address in real. Just make a Message rule to delete them from the server. As discussed in Dealing with Junk-email (spam). If you don’t use Outlook Express, search your menus for Block Sender. This will send them straight to the trash folder after downloading.

2. Hide or camouflage your address for Bulletin Boards. Alter your address in this way; fredandwilma@REMOVExtra.co.nz Sensible people will soon work out what to do if they’d like to contact you directly, Bots do not! Remember, that the purpose of these notice boards are to give you a place to return for a reply to your inquiry without fear of being spammed, so try not to give your address out to start with!

3. If you must give your address away to a new chat room friend “scarey”, send it inside a document or text file. Msn can receive attachments so send it that way. If you are receiving something via MSN however, make sure your anti-virus program is up to date, and scan it before opening it.

4. After clicking Forward on an email you’d like to pass on, delete all other references, text, and addresses. Protect your friends by sending only the email content and not the addresses of those who have received it already. This is really shutting the gate after the horse has bolted. Why? Because everyone who received that letter initially can see everyone’s address already. (doh!)

Please take time to study the following steps on How to…;

Send a letter to multiple addresses Using B.C.C:

1. Create a new email letter like normal.

2. With that in front of you, click to To: button to obtain your address book.

3. Select the multiple recipients and click to B.c.c:> button. This stands for Blind Carbon Copy, neither of the recipients will know who else received this letter. Great for sending copies to Lawyers and your boss. (it’s a thought anyway)

4. Click OK and all will appear to you at the top of your new letter.

5. Send as your usual practice after composing.

As a permanent reminder regarding Bcc:, why not make it appear for every new letter?

In Outlook Express.

When you open a New Message and you cannot see bcc: as an Option, go to the View menu and click All Headers. After that it will be there for every letter. For MS Outlook, in the view menu click Show Bcc.

All Done!