[Woodcarver] How to help prevent Spam, it is not the list doing it!

[Victor Hamburger]

All:

I doubt this stuff is from the list, it likely is someone's address book that
has been compromised by a spammer.  Bill can't do anymore about this than you or
I can.

I have, over many years of doing this stuff, found several ways to help prevent
spam from the type you all are reporting now.

1.  NEVER send a note to a large mailing list of folks without copying each
person as bcc: (Blind Carbon Copy) instead of the To: field.  This prevents
spammers from picking your email off the internet traffic and grabbing all those
real addresses you just used. If they can't see who you send the mail to, they
can't use the addresses.

2.  Get a good anti virus program and use it! It is cheap insurance and there
are some free ones out there as well. 

3. If you are connected to the internet via full time connection, like cable or
DSL, use a firewall program to keep the world out of your computer!  Again, they
are fairly cheap and save a world of work. Particularly important if you use
internet explorer for mail, as that is the favorite target of spammers and virus
distributors.

4. Don't send a mail message on to everyone warning about the latest virus, etc
until you check it out with one of the anti virus sites, to be sure it is
accurate and correct.  It almost NEVER is!! The people who create those stupid
messages tend to hide a "mail back" feature in the code, so when you forward the
message to all your friends, it goes right back to the spammers! Nasty trick,
eh?

5. NEVER believe everything you read about virus', horror stories, etc on email,
there is nothing that says it is for real, so relax and enjoy the carving list
and keep your computer safe!

	Vic H
I'm sure others will have more hints and tips as well.