Bits'n'Bytes

Tip 6

I get all kinds of email. Email from customers, email from suppliers, and email from friends and family. And I get a lot of email advertising stuff, offering me free stuff and outright scams. Most of the stuff I don't want ends up in my Spam folder. But, too often, I get "spam" emails from people in my contact lists. They're able to bypass the Spam filters just because they're in those lists. Unfortunately, they're usually sent by well meaning or curious individuals who don't know enough of the details of how the Internet works.

One of the ones I get is the "Save this girl" emails. It goes on to describe the plight of a little girl who needs surgery, or teeth or new shoes or whatever. It claims that Facebook or Microsoft or Google or some other giant company will donate a certain amount of money if 50,000 or 500,000 or a million or whatever number of people pass on the email. First of all, why would Facebook or Microsoft do that? Second, how would they do that? There is no possible way to track how many people have read an email, or how many people you've sent it to, unless you're the one who received the email. Other than receiving that particular version of the email, there could be hundreds of other copies going to other people around the world. Trying to collect them all back again in one place would be impossible.

These email are designed for one thing only. To accumulate email addresses. Have you ever taken a look at these "Pass it on" email viruses? Scroll down the list of recipients. There can be hundreds, sometimes thousands of email addresses in the list. Now, Microsoft can't track all of the various threads, but someone unscrupulous can certainly grab a couple thousand "verified" email addresses to sell to spammers! There's a market for everything on the Internet! Now everyone on the list gets a Viagra offer, or an ad for sex toys! Aren't we feeling special?

Occasionally, a really heartwarming email comes in. If you feel the need to pass it on, delete all the rest of the email addresses at the bottom of the message. Send it to yourself. Then BCC, which stands for Blind Carbon Copy, anyone else you want to send it to. BCC is an option when you click on the To: button in your email program. Look for it and use it, please!

One final note? I've never spoken with ANYONE who's ever seen the Taco Bell dog beat the crap out of Ronald McDonald, or vice versa.

Thanks for reading! Hope this helps you with your next computer purchase.

Until next week, I'm Computer Dave