Post by Crockett on Jan 1, 2007 1:38:34 GMT -5
If one were to think about the best ways for a spammer to get a 'huge" list of email addresses to spam, it would be:
1. take a real situation, story, or picture.
2. apply it to a heart-wrenching, recent news story.
3. Heroism
4. Embellish a true story and put it close to home like adding your state, province or city.
Put them together and it's realistic enough to be true and believable so people tend to send these out because they want to help or warn others.
Or they take a story that could be true, add some "close to home" embellishments.
They prey on the goodness of people to set them up. and want to warn others. Why?...because they think it's a "news bulletin" as they never heard it on the news or saw it in the paper.
Next thing you know, someone receives these with 100's of email addies attached because the general population of email senders use Forward and do not use Bcc.
For example, last year's tsunami. Pictures of tidal waves worldwide resurfaced to make it look like amazing pictures from "that" episode.
www.snopes.com/photos/tsunami/tsunami1.asp
www.snopes.com/critters/defender/elephant.asp
Police/law enforcement agencies and "safety" letters are one of the worst.
www.snopes.com/horrors/madmen/lightout.asp
Another example. I just received a "warning" type of email from a friend that stated something about a phenylpropanolamine recall. It was true but 5 years old and already dealt with. As a result, most products that formerly included PPA have now been discontinued or reformulated without PPA while the FDA proceeds with the regulatory process necessary to remove all PPA-containing products from the market. Most people get suckered with that.
www.snopes.com/medical/drugs/ppa.asp
Ask yourself this:
Research first:
www.snopes.com/
urbanlegends.about.com/
I can honestly say I have never emailed anyone "news stories" because if they were true, everyone would have already saw it on the TV, read it in the newspaper or heard it in conversation at work.
Email Hoaxes: Click for the list
www.softlab.ece.ntua.gr/~sivann/pub/swf/may02-smilepop-soapbox4.swf
How about sending this to everyone you know to cut down on spam, but ONLY if:
1. You don't FORWARD it. Learn how to copy and paste.
2. You use Bcc (Blind Carbon Copy) . Bcc: recipients get a copy of the email, but their email address is automatically deleted at delivery. Nobody except you and the Bcc: recipient will know that they got a copy, and their email address will not be exposed.
3. Everyone you send it to also follows the first two points.
If not, just forget it.
How to BCC:
Outlook Express: To turn on the BCC field:
Create a New message and choose View, All Headers.
In Outlook and Outlook Express, when you fill in email addresses using the Bcc line, they still and only appear to you, not others.
Others will see "undisclosed recipient" when they receive it.
MS-Outlook: To turn on the BCC field
Create a New message and choose View, BCC.
AOL does not have a dedicated BCC field. To send mail via BCC, place addresses and screen names in the CC field surrounded by parentheses. For example: (billyg@msn.com, SteveCase, lunchmeat@spam.net)
The easiest way to do this is to insert/change the email addresses in your address book to add the ( ) around each address, rather than in each individual email.
This way it's a one-time only addition.
ex:
name: memberone
(addressmemberone@comcast.net)
EDIT
Another way I just found out to better access Bcc in AOL, thanks to Linda, is to open up your AOL Address Book and highlight the names you wish to send to, then looking at the bottom, click on Bcc.
MSN Explorer: MSN Explorer does not display the Bcc: field by default. Making it show is easy, however.
To add Bcc: recipients to a message in MSN Explorer:
Click on "More" on the "Write E-mail" screen.
Select "Show Bcc:".
Then use the Bcc: field like the To: field.
Netscape Messenger: To send via BCC, type the first address, click the To: button on the left of the name and choose BCC from the drop-down list. After pressing ENTER, each subsequent address you type will be Blind Carbon Copied.
Lotus Notes - the BCC field is right there. Nothing to "turn on", no hoops to jump through, just use it!
Juno Mail - Juno versions earlier than 3.0 do not allow BCC. However with Juno 3.0, the BCC feature exists and works just like AOL. There is no dedicated BCC field. Instead, place alias/nickname, mailing list name, or e-mail address in CC field and surround entire collection in parentheses.
Most web-based email programs (such as Yahoo! Mail, Gmail, Hotmail) are intuitive enough to figure out. Something saying "BCC" is usually staring you right in the face.
Yahoo:
Hotmail: 
GMail: Click for picture
Pegasus Mail: If you want to protect these recipients' privacy you need to tweak Pegasus Mail's settings.
To hide Bcc recipients with Pegasus Mail:
Select Tools | Options... from the menu in Pegasus Mail.
Go to the Outgoing mail | Sending mail category.
Make sure the check box next to Suppress BCC field listings in outgoing mail is ticked.
Click OK.
Chain Letters:
Chain letters that end in "If you forward this to 10 people within 30 minutes...." never come true so why do you fall for it? It's just another method spammers use to harvest evail addresses and pass on viruses.
The next time you get one of those "If you forward this to 5 or 10 people...." emails, send the sender back this:
THE SEVEN BASIC TYPES OF CHAIN LETTERS:
Chain Letter Type 1: (scroll down)
Make a wish!!!
Really, go on and make one!!!
Oh please.... they'll never go out with you!!!
Wish something else!!!
Not that, you moron!!!
Something else! Quick!!!
Is your finger getting tired yet?
STOP!!!!
Wasn't that fun? Hope you made a great wish.
Now, to make you feel guilty, here's what I'll do. First of all, if you
don't send this to 5096 people in the next 5 seconds, you will be attacked by
a mad goat and then thrown off a high building into a pile of manure. It's
true!
Because, you know, THIS letter isn't like all of those fake ones, THIS one is TRUE!!
Really!!! Here's how it goes:
Send this to 1 person:
One person will be mad at you for sending them a stupid chain letter.
Send this to 2-5 people:
2-5 people will be mad at you for sending them a stupid chain letter.
5-10 people:
5-10 people will be mad at you for sending them a stupidchain letter.
10-20 people:
10-20 people will be mad at you for sending them a stupid chain letter.
20 to 674, 951 people:
20 to 674, 951 people will be mad at you for sending them a stupid chain letter.
Thanks!!!! Good Luck!!!
Chain Letter Type 2
Hello, and thank you for reading this letter. You see, there is a starving
little boy in Baklaliviatatlaglooshen who has no arms, no legs, no parents,
and no goats. This little boy's life could be saved, because for every time
you pass this on, a dollar will be donated to the Little Starving Legless
Armless Goatless Boy from Baklaliviatatlaglooshen Fund. Remember, we have no
way of counting letters sent and this is all bull. So go on, reach out. Send
this to 5 people in the next 47seconds.
Oh, and a reminder - if you accidentally send this to 4 or 6 people, you will
die instantly. Thanks again!!
Chain Letter Type 3
Hi there!! This chain letter has been in existence since 1897. This is
absolutely incredible because there was no email then and probably not as many
little 8 year olds writing chain letters. So this is how it works. Pass this
on to 15,067 people in the next 7 minutes or something horrible will happen to
you like:
Stupid Horror Story #1
Miranda Pinsley was walking home from school on Saturday. She had recently
received this letter and ignored it. She then tripped in a crack in the
sidewalk, fell into the sewer, was gushed down a drainpipe in a flood of
poopie, and went flying out over a waterfall. Not only did she smell nasty,
she died. This Could Happen To You!!!
Stupid Horror Story #2
Dexter Bip, a 13 year old boy, got a chain letter in his mail and ignored it.
Later that day, he was hit by a car and so was his girlfriend. They both died.
Their families were so upset that everyone related to them (even by marriage)
went crazy and spent the rest of their miserable lives in an institution. This
Could Happen To You!!!
Remember, you could end up like Pinsley and Bip did. Just send this letter to
all of your loser friends, and everything will be OK.
Chain Letter Type 4:
As if you care, here is a poem that I wrote. Send it to every one of your
friends.
Friends
A friend is someone who is always at your side,
A friend is someone who likes you even though you smell like poop,
A friend is someone who likes you even though you're disgustingly ugly,
A friend is someone who cleans up for you after you've soiled yourself,
A friend is someone who stays with you all night while you cry about your
loser life,
A friend is someone who pretends they like you when they really think you should be attacked by
a mad goat and then thrown in a pile of manure,
A friend is someone who scrubs your toilet and vacuums and then gets the check and leaves and
doesn't speak much English, no sorry - that's the cleaning lady,
A friend is not someone who sends you chain letters because he wants his wish of being rich to
come true.
Now pass this on! If you don't, you'll be eaten by wild goats.
Chain Letter Type 5:
This e-mail is wicked-cool! It was started by Microsoft to test its
e-mail tracking system because, you know, a big high-tech company like
Microsoft always sends important new software out over the internet to
be available to any moron who can operate a computer, right? Plus, they
have formed a secret merger with Disney Corp., who has agreed to give up
millions of dollars in revenue by giving everyone who reads this e-mail,
passes it on, looks at it, knows someone that looked at it, or is related
to someone who is a friend of someone who looks at it A FREE,
ALL-EXPENSES-PAID TRIP to Disneyland, DisneyWorld, or EuroDisney! So
pass this on to everyone you know that is gullible enough to believe this (or not)!
Even if it's not true, hey insulting all of your friends by implying that they are
gullible by sending this to them is worth the improbable chance that you could go
to Disneyland! Even if you lose all of your friends because they are tired
of receiving this kind of junk from you, it's worth the chance, right?
And just for good measure, if you don't send this on, Microsoft will send
its specially trained attack-goats to pilfer your house and eat all of your family,
SO SEND IT ON!!!!!
Chain Letter Type 6:
VIRUS WARNING!!!
If you receive an email entitled "Badtimes," delete it immediately.
Do not open it. Apparently this one is pretty nasty. It will not only
erase everything on your hard drive,but it will also delete anything on
disks within 20 feet of your computer. It demagnetizes the stripes on
ALL of your credit cards. It reprograms your ATM access code, screws up
the tracking on your VCR and uses subspace field harmonics to scratch
any CD's you attempt to play.
It will re-calibrate your refrigerator's coolness settings so all your
ice cream melts and your milk curdles.
It will program your phone AutoDial to call only your mother-in-law's number.
So be careful! Forward this to all of your friends, relatives,
neighbors, family, enemies, plumbers, garbagemen, stock brockers,
doctors, and any other acquaintances!
It's for their own good! Thank you.
Chain Letter Type 7:
Here is a cute picture I drew.
(\ /)
( \ / )
( \ / )
( /<\ )
( / \/ \ )
/ \ __
( ) ( )
It is a decapitated angel. Send it on to all of your friends so it will
brighten their day like it did yours! If you don't, demon-possessed goats
will move into your house and eat all of your socks, leading you to believe
that something is wrong with your washing machine because all of your socks
keep disappearing. Have a nice day!!!
There. Now that we've covered and dumped on the seven main types of chain
letters, onto the ironic part. In order for this to get any popularity, send
it on!!! If you don't think it was funny at all, don't bother, but otherwise
forward this sucker to everyone you know!! If you don't, I don't care, but why
not show this around? Take two minutes and forward it. Thanks!
Remember, the moral of the story is, if you get a chain letter, ignore it.
If it's a joke or something, send it, sure, but if it's gonna make people feel
guilty (i.e. the goatless boy from Baklaliviatatlaglooshen) or nervous (i.e.
Miranda Pinsley who ended up in a waterfall of turds) just delete it. Do
yourself a favor, and everyone else in the world, and say, DEATH TO CHAIN
LETTERS!!" ...LOL
1. take a real situation, story, or picture.
2. apply it to a heart-wrenching, recent news story.
3. Heroism
4. Embellish a true story and put it close to home like adding your state, province or city.
Put them together and it's realistic enough to be true and believable so people tend to send these out because they want to help or warn others.
Or they take a story that could be true, add some "close to home" embellishments.
They prey on the goodness of people to set them up. and want to warn others. Why?...because they think it's a "news bulletin" as they never heard it on the news or saw it in the paper.
Next thing you know, someone receives these with 100's of email addies attached because the general population of email senders use Forward and do not use Bcc.
For example, last year's tsunami. Pictures of tidal waves worldwide resurfaced to make it look like amazing pictures from "that" episode.
www.snopes.com/photos/tsunami/tsunami1.asp
www.snopes.com/critters/defender/elephant.asp
Police/law enforcement agencies and "safety" letters are one of the worst.
www.snopes.com/horrors/madmen/lightout.asp
Another example. I just received a "warning" type of email from a friend that stated something about a phenylpropanolamine recall. It was true but 5 years old and already dealt with. As a result, most products that formerly included PPA have now been discontinued or reformulated without PPA while the FDA proceeds with the regulatory process necessary to remove all PPA-containing products from the market. Most people get suckered with that.
www.snopes.com/medical/drugs/ppa.asp
Ask yourself this:
If I didn't hear it on the news or didn't read it in the paper or didn't talk about it at work, WHY then do I first hear about it in an email?
....because it's not true.
....because it's not true.
Research first:
www.snopes.com/
urbanlegends.about.com/
I can honestly say I have never emailed anyone "news stories" because if they were true, everyone would have already saw it on the TV, read it in the newspaper or heard it in conversation at work.
Email Hoaxes: Click for the list
www.softlab.ece.ntua.gr/~sivann/pub/swf/may02-smilepop-soapbox4.swf
How about sending this to everyone you know to cut down on spam, but ONLY if:
1. You don't FORWARD it. Learn how to copy and paste.
2. You use Bcc (Blind Carbon Copy) . Bcc: recipients get a copy of the email, but their email address is automatically deleted at delivery. Nobody except you and the Bcc: recipient will know that they got a copy, and their email address will not be exposed.
3. Everyone you send it to also follows the first two points.
If not, just forget it.
How to BCC:
Outlook Express: To turn on the BCC field:
Create a New message and choose View, All Headers.
In Outlook and Outlook Express, when you fill in email addresses using the Bcc line, they still and only appear to you, not others.
Others will see "undisclosed recipient" when they receive it.
MS-Outlook: To turn on the BCC field
Create a New message and choose View, BCC.
AOL does not have a dedicated BCC field. To send mail via BCC, place addresses and screen names in the CC field surrounded by parentheses. For example: (billyg@msn.com, SteveCase, lunchmeat@spam.net)
The easiest way to do this is to insert/change the email addresses in your address book to add the ( ) around each address, rather than in each individual email.
This way it's a one-time only addition.
ex:
name: memberone
(addressmemberone@comcast.net)
EDIT
Another way I just found out to better access Bcc in AOL, thanks to Linda, is to open up your AOL Address Book and highlight the names you wish to send to, then looking at the bottom, click on Bcc.
MSN Explorer: MSN Explorer does not display the Bcc: field by default. Making it show is easy, however.
To add Bcc: recipients to a message in MSN Explorer:
Click on "More" on the "Write E-mail" screen.
Select "Show Bcc:".
Then use the Bcc: field like the To: field.
Netscape Messenger: To send via BCC, type the first address, click the To: button on the left of the name and choose BCC from the drop-down list. After pressing ENTER, each subsequent address you type will be Blind Carbon Copied.
Lotus Notes - the BCC field is right there. Nothing to "turn on", no hoops to jump through, just use it!
Juno Mail - Juno versions earlier than 3.0 do not allow BCC. However with Juno 3.0, the BCC feature exists and works just like AOL. There is no dedicated BCC field. Instead, place alias/nickname, mailing list name, or e-mail address in CC field and surround entire collection in parentheses.
Most web-based email programs (such as Yahoo! Mail, Gmail, Hotmail) are intuitive enough to figure out. Something saying "BCC" is usually staring you right in the face.
Yahoo:
Hotmail: 
GMail: Click for picture Pegasus Mail: If you want to protect these recipients' privacy you need to tweak Pegasus Mail's settings.
To hide Bcc recipients with Pegasus Mail:
Select Tools | Options... from the menu in Pegasus Mail.
Go to the Outgoing mail | Sending mail category.
Make sure the check box next to Suppress BCC field listings in outgoing mail is ticked.
Click OK.
Chain Letters:
Chain letters that end in "If you forward this to 10 people within 30 minutes...." never come true so why do you fall for it? It's just another method spammers use to harvest evail addresses and pass on viruses.
The next time you get one of those "If you forward this to 5 or 10 people...." emails, send the sender back this:
THE SEVEN BASIC TYPES OF CHAIN LETTERS:
Chain Letter Type 1: (scroll down)
Make a wish!!!
Really, go on and make one!!!
Oh please.... they'll never go out with you!!!
Wish something else!!!
Not that, you moron!!!
Something else! Quick!!!
Is your finger getting tired yet?
STOP!!!!
Wasn't that fun? Hope you made a great wish.
Now, to make you feel guilty, here's what I'll do. First of all, if you
don't send this to 5096 people in the next 5 seconds, you will be attacked by
a mad goat and then thrown off a high building into a pile of manure. It's
true!
Because, you know, THIS letter isn't like all of those fake ones, THIS one is TRUE!!
Really!!! Here's how it goes:
Send this to 1 person:
One person will be mad at you for sending them a stupid chain letter.
Send this to 2-5 people:
2-5 people will be mad at you for sending them a stupid chain letter.
5-10 people:
5-10 people will be mad at you for sending them a stupidchain letter.
10-20 people:
10-20 people will be mad at you for sending them a stupid chain letter.
20 to 674, 951 people:
20 to 674, 951 people will be mad at you for sending them a stupid chain letter.
Thanks!!!! Good Luck!!!
Chain Letter Type 2
Hello, and thank you for reading this letter. You see, there is a starving
little boy in Baklaliviatatlaglooshen who has no arms, no legs, no parents,
and no goats. This little boy's life could be saved, because for every time
you pass this on, a dollar will be donated to the Little Starving Legless
Armless Goatless Boy from Baklaliviatatlaglooshen Fund. Remember, we have no
way of counting letters sent and this is all bull. So go on, reach out. Send
this to 5 people in the next 47seconds.
Oh, and a reminder - if you accidentally send this to 4 or 6 people, you will
die instantly. Thanks again!!
Chain Letter Type 3
Hi there!! This chain letter has been in existence since 1897. This is
absolutely incredible because there was no email then and probably not as many
little 8 year olds writing chain letters. So this is how it works. Pass this
on to 15,067 people in the next 7 minutes or something horrible will happen to
you like:
Stupid Horror Story #1
Miranda Pinsley was walking home from school on Saturday. She had recently
received this letter and ignored it. She then tripped in a crack in the
sidewalk, fell into the sewer, was gushed down a drainpipe in a flood of
poopie, and went flying out over a waterfall. Not only did she smell nasty,
she died. This Could Happen To You!!!
Stupid Horror Story #2
Dexter Bip, a 13 year old boy, got a chain letter in his mail and ignored it.
Later that day, he was hit by a car and so was his girlfriend. They both died.
Their families were so upset that everyone related to them (even by marriage)
went crazy and spent the rest of their miserable lives in an institution. This
Could Happen To You!!!
Remember, you could end up like Pinsley and Bip did. Just send this letter to
all of your loser friends, and everything will be OK.
Chain Letter Type 4:
As if you care, here is a poem that I wrote. Send it to every one of your
friends.
Friends
A friend is someone who is always at your side,
A friend is someone who likes you even though you smell like poop,
A friend is someone who likes you even though you're disgustingly ugly,
A friend is someone who cleans up for you after you've soiled yourself,
A friend is someone who stays with you all night while you cry about your
loser life,
A friend is someone who pretends they like you when they really think you should be attacked by
a mad goat and then thrown in a pile of manure,
A friend is someone who scrubs your toilet and vacuums and then gets the check and leaves and
doesn't speak much English, no sorry - that's the cleaning lady,
A friend is not someone who sends you chain letters because he wants his wish of being rich to
come true.
Now pass this on! If you don't, you'll be eaten by wild goats.
Chain Letter Type 5:
This e-mail is wicked-cool! It was started by Microsoft to test its
e-mail tracking system because, you know, a big high-tech company like
Microsoft always sends important new software out over the internet to
be available to any moron who can operate a computer, right? Plus, they
have formed a secret merger with Disney Corp., who has agreed to give up
millions of dollars in revenue by giving everyone who reads this e-mail,
passes it on, looks at it, knows someone that looked at it, or is related
to someone who is a friend of someone who looks at it A FREE,
ALL-EXPENSES-PAID TRIP to Disneyland, DisneyWorld, or EuroDisney! So
pass this on to everyone you know that is gullible enough to believe this (or not)!
Even if it's not true, hey insulting all of your friends by implying that they are
gullible by sending this to them is worth the improbable chance that you could go
to Disneyland! Even if you lose all of your friends because they are tired
of receiving this kind of junk from you, it's worth the chance, right?
And just for good measure, if you don't send this on, Microsoft will send
its specially trained attack-goats to pilfer your house and eat all of your family,
SO SEND IT ON!!!!!
Chain Letter Type 6:
VIRUS WARNING!!!
If you receive an email entitled "Badtimes," delete it immediately.
Do not open it. Apparently this one is pretty nasty. It will not only
erase everything on your hard drive,but it will also delete anything on
disks within 20 feet of your computer. It demagnetizes the stripes on
ALL of your credit cards. It reprograms your ATM access code, screws up
the tracking on your VCR and uses subspace field harmonics to scratch
any CD's you attempt to play.
It will re-calibrate your refrigerator's coolness settings so all your
ice cream melts and your milk curdles.
It will program your phone AutoDial to call only your mother-in-law's number.
So be careful! Forward this to all of your friends, relatives,
neighbors, family, enemies, plumbers, garbagemen, stock brockers,
doctors, and any other acquaintances!
It's for their own good! Thank you.
Chain Letter Type 7:
Here is a cute picture I drew.
(\ /)
( \ / )
( \ / )
( /<\ )
( / \/ \ )
/ \ __
( ) ( )
It is a decapitated angel. Send it on to all of your friends so it will
brighten their day like it did yours! If you don't, demon-possessed goats
will move into your house and eat all of your socks, leading you to believe
that something is wrong with your washing machine because all of your socks
keep disappearing. Have a nice day!!!
There. Now that we've covered and dumped on the seven main types of chain
letters, onto the ironic part. In order for this to get any popularity, send
it on!!! If you don't think it was funny at all, don't bother, but otherwise
forward this sucker to everyone you know!! If you don't, I don't care, but why
not show this around? Take two minutes and forward it. Thanks!
Remember, the moral of the story is, if you get a chain letter, ignore it.
If it's a joke or something, send it, sure, but if it's gonna make people feel
guilty (i.e. the goatless boy from Baklaliviatatlaglooshen) or nervous (i.e.
Miranda Pinsley who ended up in a waterfall of turds) just delete it. Do
yourself a favor, and everyone else in the world, and say, DEATH TO CHAIN
LETTERS!!" ...LOL
