BEST WAY NOT TO GET A VIRUSES

Here are the same actions as prepared by an 'Internet Professional' for his corporation. It is an excellent message that ABSOLUTELY applies to ALL persons who send e-mails. Please read the short letter below, even if you're sure you already follow proper procedures. I strongly encourage you to read these guidelines and please try to follow them when you forward e-mails in the future.
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HOW TO FORWARD E-MAILS APPROPRIATELY.
Do you really know how to forward e-mails? Some do; most DO NOT.

Do you wonder why you get viruses or junk mail?
Don't 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 and 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 they will make five cents for each hit. That's right, all of that inconvenience over five cents.
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How do you stop it? Just follow these easy steps:
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(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.
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(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 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
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(3) Remove any 'FW:' in the subject line. You can re-name the subject if you wish or even correct spelling.

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(4) ALWAYS hit your Forward button from the actual e-mail you are reading. Ever get those e-mails where you have to open 10 pages to read the one page with the information on it? By Forwarding only the actual page you wish someone to view, you eliminate the need for them to open those many, many e-mails just to see what you sent. In many
Instances, the recipient will just delete your message instead of opening all those extra pages. If you, as the sender, wont take the time to delete all those forwarded pages, why should the recipient have to open all of them just to get to the basic document?
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(5) Have you ever gotten an e-mail 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 e-mail can be forwarded on and on and can collect thousands of names and email addresses.

A FACT: The completed petition is actually worthless except to a professional spammer because of the wealth of valid names and e-mail 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 e-mail 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 e-mail is being traced, it just ain't so!)

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(6) 'Send this e-mail to 10 people and you'll see something great run across your screen.DON'T
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(7) Before you forward an Amber Alert, or a Virus Alert, or some of the other 'alerts' floating around nowadays, check them out before you forward them. Most of them are junk mail that's been circling the net for YEARS! Just about everything you receive in an e-mail that is in question can be checked out. Just go to www.truthorfiction.com or www.snopes.com