E-mail Tracking

I think most people do not know this information, and it is important enough that everyone should.  I get these kinds of e-mails ALL THE TIME and I don't participate in them for a very good reason.  Please read on.

If you get an e-mail and you are not sure if it is correct information, visit http://www.snopes.com/ and/or http://www.truthorfiction.com/ for determining whether information received via email is just that: true/false or fact/fiction. Both are excellent sites.

1) Any time you see an e-mail that says "forward this on to 10 (or however many) of your friends,"  or "you'll get bad luck" or "you'll get good luck" or "you'll see something funny on your screen after you send it" or whatever --- it almost always has an e-mail tracker program attached that tracks the cookies and e-mails of those folks you forward to. The host sender (originator of the e-mail) is getting a copy each time it gets forwarded and then is able to get lists of active email addresses to use in SPAM emails or sell to other spammers. Even when you get e-mails that demand you send the e-mail on if you're not ashamed of God/Jesus --- that is e-mail tracking, and they are playing on your conscience. These people don't care how they get your e-mail addresses -- just as long as they get them.

E-mails that talk about a missing child or a child with an incurable disease "how would you feel if that was your child" --- e-mail tracking. Ignore them and don't participate!

2) Almost all e-mails that ask you to add your name and forward on to others are similar to that mass letter years ago that asked people to send business cards to the little kid in Florida who wanted to break the Guinness Book of Records for the most cards. All it was, and all any of this type of e-mail is, is a way to get names and tracking information for telemarketers and spammers -- to validate active e-mail accounts for their own profitable purposes.

3) E-mail petitions are NOT acceptable to Congress or any other organization - i.e., social security, etc. To be acceptable, petitions must have a signed signature and full address of the person signing the petition, so this is a waste of time and you are just helping the e-mail trackers.

4) Bill Gates is not going to send you a check for forwarding an e-mail to so many people.  Neither is any other business.  You're not going to get coupons or rewards of any kind for forwarding these types of e-mail.  These e-mails entice with "what do you have to lose"?  YOUR PRIVACY!

You can do your friends and family members a GREAT favor by not forwarding these kinds of e-mails to them. You will be providing a service to your friends, and you will be rewarded by not getting thousands of spam e-mails in the future!

Do yourself a favor and STOP adding your name to those types of listings regardless of how inviting they might sound or how guilty they make you feel! It’s all about getting e-mail addresses and nothing more. You may think you are supporting a GREAT cause, but you are NOT! Instead, you will be getting tons of junk mail later and very possibly a virus attached! Plus, we are helping the spammers get rich! Let's not make it easy for them!

Use BCC (blind carbon copy) when sending e-mails to groups of people, unless you absolutely want the others recipients to know to whom you are also sending.  Most e-mail programs have a BCC spot to type the e-mail addresses into.  When using AOL, just put the names in parenthesis in the CC field.

I hope this will help you!