REMOVE EMAIL ADDRESSES TO PREVENT SPAM
by Ray DeCosta
Q. A friend has told me that I should remove all those previous
names and addresses on any emails before I forward them. Why is
this necessary?
A. Well, you're really doing all your friends and
friends-of-friends a great favor by doing so. Some of those
jokes and other emails, especially the ones that say "Send this
to everyone you know", may actually have been started by
spammers. They do this to get numerous emails circulating around
the Internet. Eventually, some of those emails get forwarded
back to them.
At this point, they now contain hundreds of known valid email
addresses which are worth money to other spammers. Those names
and addresses are sold to others over and over again. If you
don't take a small amount of time to delete those prior
addresses, you are helping to perpetuate the huge mass of spam
which infests the Internet. It has been estimated that as much
as 95% of all email traffic is spam! We should all do our part
to help reduce this waste of Internet resources and keep our
Inboxes free of spam.
As a courtesy to others, you should really take the time to
delete all those previous addresses. While email programs may
differ, generally all you have to do after you hit the Forward
button is highlight that long list of prior recipients and click
Delete or Cut. Immediately, those addresses will vanish and you
will have done your small part to reduce spam in the universe.
Published: Courier 9/6/09 - Page 5C