Dear Friends,

I had received this from a friend and passed it on a long time ago so some of you may have gotten it before but I have also inserted some additional infomation. I have a lot of new people on my list now who might be interested in it. Some of you it does not apply to but I'm sending it to all on my list
just in case. Please take time to read this!!!
Monette

Online Safety...

"Being careful about online safety is your best defense. Do not hesitate to call your police department.Most police departments are trained to handle online investigations and they take them seriously.

Your Internet Service Provider: Your ISP will know what to do if you are in doubt. Do not hesitate to contact them also.

Take the time to learn how to keep yourself safe. Even when you are careful though, just like in the "real" world, your safety can be threatened.

Be aware that email travels! And travels! It can be forwarded many times. If your email address is visible it will be seen and available to everyone who receives the forwarded email. Let's be more cautious - use the Blind cc option to protect your friends addresses and ask them to do the same for you.

As an example you will notice that when I send out messages, you do not see the names or addresses of those to who I send the message to. Although, there are over 1000 people on my mailing list, that a message may go out to, you can not see their addresses.

Be email safe...use Blind cc to email to your lists. If you do not know how it works - I urge you to consult the help in your own mail program. It is very easy to do!

Here are the instructions using the Bcc box in Outlook Express:

To Send an e-mail message:
1. On the toolbar, click the Create Mail button.
2. In the TO or Cc boxes, type the e-mail name of each recipient, separating
names with a comma or semicolon (;).

To add e-mail names from the address book, click the book icon in the New Message window next to TO, Cc, and Bcc, and then select names.

To use the Bcc box, on the View menu, select All Headers.

3. In the Subject box, type a message title.
4. Type your message, and then click Send on the toolbar.

Here are a couple of examples of circumstances that have happened to people:
A women turned down a man's advances. His revenge - posting her name, phone number, directions to her home, and saying that she wanted to be contacted for "a good time".

A group of women are online friends and send emails to each other. A man gets an email with a group of PREVIOUS forwarding email addresses on it. He sees this group and emails one of them, saying he is a friend of another one
on the list. He then contacts others saying he is a friend of
a different one. By infiltrating the group, he gains enough information this way to actually find the home of one of them."

As was previously stated...be safe! PLEASE use the Blind cc option to protect your friends addresses and ask them to do the same for you.

Note from Monette: Please use copy/paste! Highlight what you want to copy, go to Edit and click "copy" ... then go to wherever you want to put it and click there ... then go to Edit and "paste". Many times I receive things I want to print out and in doing so I wind up with a page or two of email names and addresses. This could be avoided by simply copying the message and pasting it to a new message rather than forwarding the whole message. It also prevents having to open many "forward" attachments which often carry
viruses.

Also, please be sure to delete the headers from emails that you forward. For example, let's say you forward something to me that you have received and that person's list shows up on the header of the email. I can now see all their email list complete with names and addresses. To avoid this, simply
hold your mouse down and highlight the headers then hit the "delete" button on your keyboard.

If someone responding to your email should hit "reply to all" (rather than just "reply") then their reply goes to everyone you sent the email to. Then they all have my name and email address! Now I get more email from strangers!

I also have a wonderful free program called Ecleaner which cleans up all the "arrow marks" on your email and makes it nice and neat. Here is the address:

http://www.pcworld.com/downloads/file_description/0%2Cfid%2C6492%2C00.asp <http://www.pcworld.com/downloads/file_description/0,fid,6492,00.asp>

Another interesting "tidbit" for you .... did you know that anyone with an AOL address may be added to someone's AOL Instant Messenger without their knowledge? I've found a lot of people this way!  You don't have to use AOL provider in order to have the AIM messenger.  You can download it free here:

http://www.aim.com/index.adp 

I am asking all of you to PLEASE just use the name Monette for me in your address book and never list my location. Most of you are already doing this and I appreciate it. Let me know if you have any questions or need help.
Thank you and God bless you!

Monette
[email protected]