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I got an email the other day from an address I didn’t know, but opened it anyhow, since it didn’t look like SPAM. Turns out it was from a friend who was sending a newsletter to multiple recipients about her new business. You could tell she put some good effort into the design and content of it, but addressed it to multiple recipients with everyone’s address showing. Talk about opening up a can of SPAM!

Like I said, she’s a good friend, so I chalked it up to inexperience, but she got a reply from one angry person about taking her off the email list and using Bcc in emails. This woman had some valid complaints, but was really nasty about it.

Here are some things I’ve learned about multiple recipient emails that might help other people and avoid nasty replies.

1. If you must send an email to multiple recipients, make sure you have their permission to receive these from you. Most newsletters have sign-ups or opt-in features.
2. Have an opt-out feature, where recipients can email you to remove them from your list.
3. Always use Bcc, instead of Cc or To. This way, no one can see each other’s email addresses, even if you think they are all friends.
4. Many Internet Service Providers (ISP’s), like Comcast and Verizon, will see you as a spammer if multiple emails are being sent out from the same address. If they do, they will block your address from sending to any of their accounts. This is a real pain to recover from and be taken off their blacklist.
5. If it’s a once in awhile email, you might get away with multiple recipients. We all get jokes etc. from well-meaning friends, but a business sending frequent newsletter emails is taking a chance.
6. If you reply to an email with multiple recipients, don’t use “reply all”, as I don’t want to hear from people I don’t know. I may have known the original sender, but not all the others. Many times, it’s a personal note anyhow.
7. Instead of mass emailings, use a newsletter service, like Constant Contact. They are very serious about not allowing SPAM and as a result respected more by ISP’s. It’s a great program with newsletter templates, mailing lists, opt-in and opt-out features, but does have a cost. It used to be free for up to 50 recipients, but they now charge a nominal fee, which might be worth it for businesses.

Hope that helps shed some light on the subject.  Keep your emails friendly!

Yeah, the internet has a wealth of information. Thousands and thousands of web sites, blogs, and databases, but it can be overwhelming to search for that information if you don’t know how. Even, if you do know your way around everyone has a catch. Usually it’s a monthly fee, or your email address.

The monthly fee thing bugs me because the internet is free - right? Besides, before anyone gets my credit card number I want more then a 30 day trial. How do I know the information is good? If the site stinks where’s the link that lets me cancel my account. I’ll tell you where - no where to be found, that’s where.

OK, so I’m a little cheap. Instead I’ll use my email address. Well, this in itself is an issue because I don’t want to use my very private and guarded personal email address, so I sign up for one of those free web accounts from Google, Yahoo, or maybe Hotmail. Now, to avoid getting too much stuff in one email account I decide to have multiple web mail accounts and that brings me to subject of logon names, and passwords. How many creative “handles” can I come up with? Who the heck thinks I’m going to remember x%#ddy! as my assigned password? Oh, by the way do you remember which email address I used to research that thing I was looking for????

Alright, I have my email accounts pretty organized and a I have a bunch of passwords I can remember, so now you’re asking what could be the problem if I’ve got it all down pat. Well, SPAM is my problem. Once you sign up for some of these things they “share” your email address and the next thing you know I’m getting all kinds of invitations and offers. Gee golly!

So, where does that leave me? As soon as I check out the 124, 853, 790,743,825,222 links that came up with my Google search I’ll let you know.

In a recent conversation with someone, who by the way is quite savvy, we got on the subject of passwords. We were ordering a computer part online and she was concerned that her password would be kept on file on the site. I said yes, but they don’t share them or at least say they don’t. Then it dawned on me that she was using the same password for every sign-up, site, online bank access etc. and didn’t want to give that one out.

I guess I just took this fact for granted that everyone knew they should have many different passwords, but maybe I learned it from being in the computer industry. It’s OK and highly encouraged to use different passwords for every different site. If someone gained access to your Facebook account password, it would make it easier for them to know your bank account password, if it was the same. Now, just because someone knows a password, doesn’t mean they could get into your bank account. Thankfully, there are other safeguards, like unique usernames, security questions etc. so a password in and of itself wouldn’t allow access. I just wouldn’t want to make it easier for someone.

Here are some suggestions for password types. For bank accounts, use the more secure form that includes letters(uppercase and lowercase) along with number combinations. Example: 84XtiR32Y - very secure, very hard to remember, so you would have to write them down to keep track. For fun sites, I use throwaway passwords, or things I can remember, like my dog’s name with numbers. Another good idea is to change them every so often for the same site.

Hope that helps you surf safer or remember to help our less savvy surfing buddies.

I don’t know if you are familiar with the Monty Python play, Spamelot, but it was an awesomely funny Broadway spoof. But that’s not what I want to write about today. It’s about the increasing amount of SPAM that’s going around. Not too many years ago, I was aware of SPAM, but didn’t really have to deal with it too much. Would merely delete the occasional offender. Now, it’s a daily occurrence, many times over - an ingrained part of the emailing world.

The titles, for the most part, give it away. Anything with Viagra, Britney Spears, sex, dieting, or “great deals” are good clues that it’s SPAM. Even if you’re interested in any of these, DON’T open them! Others are less blatant, but still dead giveaways. Misspellings, bad grammar, an out of place capital letter are some of my favorites. Anything that looks wrong, probably is wrong. Here are some actual subject lines of spammers:

grate deal you
hi you guy
get on this before Opening bell
Re: you’re request
Recipet #71100112136

Even worse are phishing schemes. For example, I received an email with the subject link, “Bank of America - Sitekey”. Now I didn’t open it, but I’m sure they would have asked me for my account number or login information. If you fall prey to this, they can access your bank accounts. They are looking to not only steal your money, but also your identity. A big DON’T OPEN here.

Curiosity is not an excuse! Even if you think it might be from your long lost friend, and the subject is “A friend has sent you an ecard”, don’t open it. Delete, delete, delete - I can’t say it enough. If you open these SPAM emails, you are helping to spread them throughout the world. Then they may grab all the email addresses in your address book and pass on the SPAM.

I don’t know who’s more parked here - the spammers or the spam-ees . The spammers are just plain evil and the spam-ees are ignorant. Let’s do what we can to stop the spread. Besides the original SPAM authors, don’t blame anyone else for your SPAM. It is everyone’s responsibility who uses email to learn about and put into place the necessary safeguards.

So what’s the accepted etiquette for IM’ing? I’m still learning and I guess it depends on whether you’re talking to friends, co-workers or whoever. Of course, the usual politeness applies, as it would for talking on the phone or in person. Depending on how well you know your friends, sometimes anything goes.

Here’s some of the things I’ve learned:

1. If you IM someone and they don’t get right back to you, you don’t really know the reason. I’ve assumed that they are busy, chatting with someone else or just plain don’t want to chat with me. As for the latter choice, I’m shocked that it would ever be the case! Since I’ve wrongly assumed the reasons before, I now just try to be patient and wait and there’s usually a logical reason.
2. I use Pidgin (formerly GAIM) and it cracks me up when I see other people in my list that are online with the status of being “Invisible”. But I can see you! Why bother logging on in the first place? Are you a voyeur? Maybe someone can explain that to me.
3. Sometimes I feel silly using those cutesy little emoticons. It does help get your emotions across, but I do wonder if I overuse them sometimes or look silly. Not that I need to use them everyday. I do have some willpower, for God’s sake.
4. It is NOT a good idea to have clients on your Buddy List. Won’t say anymore on that one.
5. I don’t know all those word abbreviations, so I mostly type, type, type everything out. I know, that’s pretty parked, but I’m getting better. Like I know the basic ones - cya, ttyl, bfn - all good-byes, so ttyl.