If it’s computer related then it must be guest blogger Kirk Dunaway again.  Enjoy…

OK, so you fire up the computer, crank up the email - and here they come.  The 37 forwarded emails from your friends.  I know…some of these are actually pretty cool.  Some are actually pretty good jokes or an unbelievable video.  You know the one - the one you just have to show your buddies!  But then there are the “warm fuzzy” or “blessings” or “cutsie” emails that always end with “for good luck (or blessings), pass this on to 10 friends.” Or the ever popular “send this to 10 people and see what great things happen in your life!”  Or how about the “don’t break the chain and receive bad luck!  Send to 10 people and then back to the sender” emails.  And then for no reason whatsoever…you do!

So now, without even raising your right hand you have enlisted in the army of a spammer.  Estimates place spam as high as 70% of emails entering corporate email servers.  The majority of these are inert ads, but not all.  How safe are those emails you pass on?  Spam emails can (and do!) contain embedded malware.  Do you actually think everyone’s anti-virus software is current, or even looks for the newest mutations?  Would you be willing to wager money on that?

The spam emails sent by strangers to you typically do not work well on you.  Most folks (fortunately) just delete them unread.  But get one from your bud and you’ve just got to see what he sent!  The last joke he sent you was awesome!  Oh, but this time it is a sickly sweet poem; with Papal blessings no less.  And you’re thinking “Nice; thanks bud.  Wait.  I know - I’ll pass this on to my friends from church.”  Well, lo and behold, in a couple of days your virus software performs its automatic update and what is that?  A virus alert?!  Oh man; now you have a virus.  Where did that come from?  And then come Sunday you find that a lot of your friends from church have the same virus and they’re greeting you not with blessings on their breath but accusations in their eyes.  

The solution is so simple.  Resist the urge!  Don’t forward it - just delete it.  These things only work with our ignorant facilitation.

Side Note:  Get a spam ad from someone you don’t know?  Does is have an “unsubscribe” link?  DONT CLICK IT.  Simply block the sender in your email program and delete the original email.  Spam gets generated and sent to random strings of email addresses and by “unsubscribing”  you have not only verified a good address, you just placed yourself on a couple of hundred spam lists.  Of course, if you actually signed up on a web site with a company you know and trust and provided them with your email address and they are hitting you with too many ads then, by all means, use the “unsubscribe” link with confidence.

Other Side Note:  The best address to give out online is a disposable one.  Make a Yahoo or GMail or Hotmail or whomever account online and then use that for online business.  Leave your home based personal address just that; give it only to friends and family.  Once the online disposable account starts getting too much spam (and you know it will), just abandon it and make a new one.  Then change your email at the businesses you still deal with.  Life is so much better without 257 new useless emails every day (enlarge my WHAT?!?)

Aloha - Kirk out