HOW TO RE-SEND E-MAILS SAFELY AND AVOID ATTACKS BY ECKERS AND INTRUSIONS BY UNKNOWN MALWARE CREATORS

I received an e-mail from one of our Portuguese viewers and friend, Mr. Luis Graça, addressing a matter that many of us pay very little attention to:

How to re-send e-mails to other people in our address book in a secure way and prevent security problems that can affect all of us.

What is the best way to handle this?

A:
When re-sending an e-mail to other people, make sure you remove the names and e-mail addresses of the persons who have already been sent that e-mail. There are several illegal programs on the Internet, that will “catch” all the info shown before and after the @ sign, meaning all the e-mail addresses shown. Those who illegally get this information, sell it to spammers or spread virus containing messages to those who innocently will open such messages.

B:
When sending a message to more than one person, do not use the “To” or “Cc” address boxes; instead use the “Bcc” address box, because this will prevent the e-mail address of the receivers of your message from showing in the message itself. (In order to make the “Bbc” address box to show, you must click the “show Cc & Bcc” command on the right upper side of your message page.

If everybody would follow the simple above rules, we would get rid of a lot of virus containing messages and other electronic garbage that continuously clog the Internet.

C:
Finally, whenever you receive those silly chain letters that promise all kinds of good and happy days if you send them to a number of other people, (but should you not do this, you’ll have many bad luck days ahead), just ignore and trash them. After all we are intelligent adult people, are we not? Nothing will happen to you if you break the “chain”...

D:
Be very careful when receiving messages that include lists of people requesting, or protesting whatever causes, to which you are asked to add your name, address etc at the end of the list and then resend to other people. Some of these are valid, BUT be careful and investigate the veracity of the causes, before you put your name on it and send it to other people.

Thanks for the sound advice, Luis.

I must add that there are many more instances on the Internet where very professionally designed traps are presented to you to fall into, the danger is always there, but if we are a little more careful we may be able to slow down the delivery of spam and the loss of personal important information that others have no business in learning.



George Freire