At one time or another you may have received an email containing a funny joke or an inspirational message from a well-meaning friend who also sent the email to several other people. You may have also noticed that all their email addresses are shown near the top of the message.
This is because everyone's email address had been placed in the CC: (carbon copy) box of the outgoing message. It's also very likely that many of the people whose email addresses are on display did likewise when they forwarded the message to all their friends.
Well, this is one of main methods used by spammers, hackers, and virus-creators to obtain valid email addresses. If you do a little math, it's easy to see that a message sent to, say, 12 people, who in turn forward it to another dozen friends, your email address could have been placed on hundreds of copies ot the original message.
Yes, we realize that none of your friends would ever give all these email addresses to a cyber-criminal. But when there are hundreds (if not thousands) of copies floating around - with some being printed on paper - how can you be sure whose hands they might fall into?
Do Not Use the CC: Box when Forwarding!
Use the BCC: (Blind Carbon Copy) Box Instead!
All email programs have a BCC: box available. Some of them, sadly, make the option hard to find. The two worst culprits are Microsoft's Outlook Express and Windows Mail.
How to Find the BCC: Boxes in Outlook Express & Windows Mail
The trick to sending email with Blind Carbon Copies from Outlook Express or Windows Mail is to open the program and click Create Mail.
Next click View and be sure that All Headers is checked. From then on, the BCC: box will always be displayed when you compose email.
Sending Email with BCCs Using AOL
The trick to sending email with Blind Carbon Copies from AOL is to enclose the names of the intended recipients in parentheses. However, there are four different ways to accomplish this, and they are all shown in the illustration below. The fourth method is by far the easiest, in my humble opinion.
Each name enclosed in parentheses, separated by a comma and a blank space
Each name enclosed in
parentheses, separated
by pressing ENTER
after each entry
Each name separated
by a comma and a
blank space, with the
whole lot enclosed in one set of parentheses
Each name separated by pressing ENTER, with the whole lot enclosed in one set of parentheses.
WARNING:
Whoever's screen name is first on an AOL BCC list may be able to see
all the names on the list. I have no idea why this is - but putting
your own screen name first on the list will ensure that
you are the only one to see all the names!
Making AOL Email Appear in Outlook Express
Open Outlook Express
Go to Tools>Accounts and click Add
Select Mail, type your name and click Next.
Enter your AOL email address. Click Next.
Under "My incoming mail server is..." make sure that IMAP is selected.
Type imap.aol.com in the "Incoming mail (POP3 or IMAP) server" box.
Type smtp.aol.com in the "Outgoing mail (SMTP) server..." box. Click Next.
Under "Account Name" type in your AOL screen name.
Under Password type in your AOL password. Click Next then Finish.
Now, in the Internet Accounts window highlight imap.aol.com and click Properties.
Go to the Advanced tab.
Under "Server Port Numbers for Outgoing Mail (SMTP)" enter 587.
Go to the IMAP tab and make sure that "Store special folders on IMAP server" is NOT checked. Click OK.
Close the Internet Accounts window.
Choose Yes to download the AOL folders list into Outlook Express. Click OK.
Your email stays AOL's server, so you should visit
www.aolanywhere.com to empty out your mail box periodically.
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