We have all received an email that someone thought we just HAD to read, that we have then forwarded on to our contacts and friends. It can be anything from a light hearted quiz, a comic or joke, or even something a bit more serious like business information with in an organization.

However forwarded emails are one way email spam people collect email addresses! I am sure everyone can relate to the headache of receiving unwanted, spam, emails.

When passing on an email to a single person, simply hitting ‘forward’ and then typing in the email address of the person in the TO: box is a very acceptable way to do this. The TO: field is visible by everyone who receives the email, and you can put more than one email address in this field.

If you are forwarding the email on to multiple people with in the same organization or a close knit, closed group, it is also acceptable if you utilize the CC: (Carbon Copy) field, by putting the most interested person(s) in the TO: field then the rest of the group in the CC field. Like the TO: field, placing email addresses in the CC: field also enables all who receive the email to view one another's names and email addresses. With in a business, association or organization this still can be desired and quite acceptable (memos, newsletters, etc.).

If, however, you are passing on an email to an entire group of people that may or may not be associated, simply entering everyone’s email address into the TO: or the CC: fields is not often desirable. Imagine this; 10 people receive that email with 10 email addresses visible. Then those people may forward that email, with those addresses, on to a half dozen other people. That list of emails has just been sent out to 2 dozen people who probably don’t even know the original recipient or sender. This is an email spammers, or email harvesters, dream! This is where you will find the BCC (Blind Carbon Copy) field useful. When using the BCC: field any addresses put into the BCC field will remain unseen by all who receive the email.

Another nifty plus to using the BCC: field is, if the recipient hits 'Reply To All' they will be able to reply to all others who received the email, only the actual sender. This is a useful tool to broadcast information, yet keep replies a bit more private.

Another way people unknowingly broadcast others email addresses is to forward an email on to a group with out ever removing all the ‘header info’ from previous senders, from the body of the email (the body being the actual email content itself). Please be sure to delete ANY previous references to forward header information in the BODY of the email address. This would look like this:

-----Original Message-----
From: kbarnes@roaringaardvark.com
To: stacyz@roaringaardvark.com
Sent: Wed, 8 Nov 2006 2:04 PM
Subject: RE: Your web site! :-)

So for a short recap, if you want to send an email to an entire group of people who may not be close knit, the best way to keep everyone’s anonymity is to;

Type your own email address into the TO: field if you are sending out an email to a large group of people– after all they will all have your email address any how, because the email is coming from you.
Type in everyone’s email address into the BCC field, as this field will NOT allow those email addresses to be seen by those who receive the email.
Remove any references to someone else’s name and email address in any forwarded ‘headers’ in the body of your email.