scarlet-rain
21st October 2007, 01:54 PM
Hi all,
I'm sure everyone has received an unwanted email before, whether it be junk mail, spam, or a forwarded email which sounded a little dodgy. For example, an email asking you to add your full name name to a petition and forward it to your friends in order to stop animal cruelty, or an email selling viagra for a ridiculous price. Many of these forwards are hoaxes, and pose security risks to unwary email users. The junk mail and spam is just plain annoying. The tools below can help combat these kinds of emails and reduce the confusion. If you've looked at the titles of these tools and already know how to use them, please forward this email on to those who may not.
Hoax Busting Websites:
There are plenty of websites devoted to busting the myths behind hoax emails and providing helpful advice on how to tell a hoax email. If you think an email sounds a bit suspicious or dodgy, all it takes is a simple Google search of a few of the keywords from the email plus the words 'hoax email' and you should get a website which disproves the suspected hoax. For example, for the hoax email which claims that MSN is going to charge people to use their Messenger service unless they get a certain number of 'signatures' or names to be sent to the Live Messenger CEO, I searched "MSN messenger hoax email", and viola, pages and pages of websites which prove that the email is a hoax. Some good examples of these websites are www.hoax-slayer.com, www.snopes.com and www.hoaxbusters.ciac.org, so be sure to check them before you hit the 'forward' button.
Common Sense:
Don't take anything at face value. Remember that anyone can make a claim on the internet, and anyone can write an email stating that claim. There are a few ways to tell whether the claim is true or not. Some common giveaways include:
poor grammar/spelling
multiple exclamation/question marks
lack of evidence (one forward I received referred to a non-existent newspaper article as evidence - again, assume nothing, verify everything you think is even slightly suspicious)
requests to forward to email to as many people as possible - this usually indicates that the aim of the email to reach as large an audience as possible
claims that the email is not a hoax or a joke - if it claims this, it usually is a hoax/joke
lack of official logos and official email addressesRemember, if a company wanted to contact its customers, it would most likely contact them directly. Do you really think they would rely on a string of forwards to get reliable, accurate information to all of its customers, and fast? Look at the sender's email address. Does sally-jane@hotmail.com sound like a genuine McDonald's employee? If McDonald's were to contact you, their domain (the part after the @ symbol) would be something like mcdonalds.com.au, as in info@mcdonalds.com.au, not some hotmail user.
Some emails ask you to sign a petition. This is useless, as there is no way of verifying that the person actually signed the petition (remember the 'anyone can write anything' internet rule), and adding your name or address to verify that you signed the petition is an obvious security risk. Never give out your full name, address or any other private information. This rule is not just for kids - scammers can use this information to find out more information about you and send you more unwanted emails. They could also sell this information to other people, companies or organisations, who can do whatever they like with it. So called 'petitions' are usually just an easy way for scammers to collect a lot of names and addresses for these reasons. Other emails claim that money will be donated for each email that is sent. There is no way of tracking how many emails were sent, especially when they are forwarded so many times and to so many different people.
Please read this (http://urbanlegends.about.com/cs/nethoaxes/ht/ema ilhoax.htm
) list for more info on how to tell a fake.
Blind Carbon Copy:
Blind Carbon Copy, or 'Bcc:' as it is shown when you compose an email (it's usually located below the 'To:' field) is an email function which allows you to send an email to more than one person without some or all of the recipients knowing the addresses of other recipients. Remember to do this with all emails that your forward, as it helps to prevent spammers and fraudsters from finding your email address and allows you to protect the privacy of your recipients.
Block Senders:
This one is pretty self explanatory. If a company (e.g. FreeScreensavers.com) keeps sending you unwanted email (and they don't have a "remove from mailing list" or similar option), you can block the sender. Most email clients allow you to do this. In Windows Live mail, click 'Options' (top right of screen) > 'More options...' > Safe and Blocked Senders (under Junk Mail) > Blocked Senders. From there you can just paste the address in, or the domain if you notice that you keep getting unwanted emails from the same domain.
Junk Mail Filter:
If you tend to get the same spam from different addresses/domains, use Windows Live mail's Junk Mail filter. All you have to do is click the 'Junk' button when you're viewing one such email and the email is moved to the junk folder and used to detect future junk mail.
If you know someone who might find this information useful, please forward it to them!
I'm sure everyone has received an unwanted email before, whether it be junk mail, spam, or a forwarded email which sounded a little dodgy. For example, an email asking you to add your full name name to a petition and forward it to your friends in order to stop animal cruelty, or an email selling viagra for a ridiculous price. Many of these forwards are hoaxes, and pose security risks to unwary email users. The junk mail and spam is just plain annoying. The tools below can help combat these kinds of emails and reduce the confusion. If you've looked at the titles of these tools and already know how to use them, please forward this email on to those who may not.
Hoax Busting Websites:
There are plenty of websites devoted to busting the myths behind hoax emails and providing helpful advice on how to tell a hoax email. If you think an email sounds a bit suspicious or dodgy, all it takes is a simple Google search of a few of the keywords from the email plus the words 'hoax email' and you should get a website which disproves the suspected hoax. For example, for the hoax email which claims that MSN is going to charge people to use their Messenger service unless they get a certain number of 'signatures' or names to be sent to the Live Messenger CEO, I searched "MSN messenger hoax email", and viola, pages and pages of websites which prove that the email is a hoax. Some good examples of these websites are www.hoax-slayer.com, www.snopes.com and www.hoaxbusters.ciac.org, so be sure to check them before you hit the 'forward' button.
Common Sense:
Don't take anything at face value. Remember that anyone can make a claim on the internet, and anyone can write an email stating that claim. There are a few ways to tell whether the claim is true or not. Some common giveaways include:
poor grammar/spelling
multiple exclamation/question marks
lack of evidence (one forward I received referred to a non-existent newspaper article as evidence - again, assume nothing, verify everything you think is even slightly suspicious)
requests to forward to email to as many people as possible - this usually indicates that the aim of the email to reach as large an audience as possible
claims that the email is not a hoax or a joke - if it claims this, it usually is a hoax/joke
lack of official logos and official email addressesRemember, if a company wanted to contact its customers, it would most likely contact them directly. Do you really think they would rely on a string of forwards to get reliable, accurate information to all of its customers, and fast? Look at the sender's email address. Does sally-jane@hotmail.com sound like a genuine McDonald's employee? If McDonald's were to contact you, their domain (the part after the @ symbol) would be something like mcdonalds.com.au, as in info@mcdonalds.com.au, not some hotmail user.
Some emails ask you to sign a petition. This is useless, as there is no way of verifying that the person actually signed the petition (remember the 'anyone can write anything' internet rule), and adding your name or address to verify that you signed the petition is an obvious security risk. Never give out your full name, address or any other private information. This rule is not just for kids - scammers can use this information to find out more information about you and send you more unwanted emails. They could also sell this information to other people, companies or organisations, who can do whatever they like with it. So called 'petitions' are usually just an easy way for scammers to collect a lot of names and addresses for these reasons. Other emails claim that money will be donated for each email that is sent. There is no way of tracking how many emails were sent, especially when they are forwarded so many times and to so many different people.
Please read this (http://urbanlegends.about.com/cs/nethoaxes/ht/ema ilhoax.htm
) list for more info on how to tell a fake.
Blind Carbon Copy:
Blind Carbon Copy, or 'Bcc:' as it is shown when you compose an email (it's usually located below the 'To:' field) is an email function which allows you to send an email to more than one person without some or all of the recipients knowing the addresses of other recipients. Remember to do this with all emails that your forward, as it helps to prevent spammers and fraudsters from finding your email address and allows you to protect the privacy of your recipients.
Block Senders:
This one is pretty self explanatory. If a company (e.g. FreeScreensavers.com) keeps sending you unwanted email (and they don't have a "remove from mailing list" or similar option), you can block the sender. Most email clients allow you to do this. In Windows Live mail, click 'Options' (top right of screen) > 'More options...' > Safe and Blocked Senders (under Junk Mail) > Blocked Senders. From there you can just paste the address in, or the domain if you notice that you keep getting unwanted emails from the same domain.
Junk Mail Filter:
If you tend to get the same spam from different addresses/domains, use Windows Live mail's Junk Mail filter. All you have to do is click the 'Junk' button when you're viewing one such email and the email is moved to the junk folder and used to detect future junk mail.
If you know someone who might find this information useful, please forward it to them!