Apr 24 2005
I haven't met a single person who likes junk email (better known as 'spam'). After all, what's there to like? The funny thing is, many of us set ourselves up for spam.
A lot of us get funny emails forwarded to us from friends who got the email from their friend, who got it from their cousin, who got it from their best friend, who... well, you get the picture. While there's nothing wrong with sending these forwards, it's how the email is addressed to you that could potentially lead to junk email. Most of us do this:
*Click for larger view*
When really, we should be doing this:
*Click for larger view*
See the difference? In the first image, there's one name in the "To:" field and a bunch of other names in the "CC:" field. ("CC:" stands for carbon copy, in case you didn't already know.)
When someone receives an email like this, all addresses in the "CC:" field can be seen by that and all recipients of the email, just like they can see all names listed in the "To:" field. The second image shows all names listed in the "BCC" field, with the sender's name in the "To:" field. Why? Well, "BCC" stands for Blind Carbon Copy, which is just that. No one else can see it (at least not without a lot of technical knowledge). So when one of those recipients hits that nasty little "Forward" button, you can be sure your friends, coworkers' and family's email addresses won't be shown. By putting your own address in the "To:" field makes you a little susceptible to spam, but if you're using an account that you don't care too much about, it's no big deal.
You may be asking how having those names in the "To:" or "CC:" field can possibly lead to spam. The answer is simple. Forwarded emails (the kind that people send on their lunch breaks or when the boss isn't looking) are forwarded through cyberspace hundreds upon thousands of times, if not more. If you send a forward to 10 people, and those 10 people each send it to 5 people, and those 5 people send the email again to a few more people, the chances of your email address getting across the inbox of a low-life spammer gets pretty high.
Just another thing to think about when emailing your nearest and dearest.