BCC Option in mail

[Don]

Can anyone tell me if they know of any plan to add an option to the mail
program/send option, which would allow the user to set the default to a BCC
(where email messages would be sent out as BCC when "create" was clicked).
With Vista's beefed up security settings it seems they would have thought of
this to help fight the spam issues. If not, who would I contact to suggest
this option for an update/revision?

Don
Computer Services

 

[Steve Cochran]

You can create a template eml file and then save it to the desktop with the
BCC filled in if you want. Just set it up and then use File | Save as and
then click on it to open it.

Such messages usually wind up in my junk folder if they are not directed to
me, as I get tons and tons of spam that way.

steve

 

[Guest]

next time you go to create an email, click on View at the top and choose
"show all headers". It took me 2 days to find that little bugger!

And the new thing about showing the email addy next to the name is driving
me insane.

 

[Don]

I'm aware of the options, but for the sake of others I teach, I was hoping
for a new BCC option in Vista I could pass on to make it easier for the
masses (and less than experts ..) to avoid exposing their mass mailings to
spammers. I've found that too many users aren't knowledgeable or caring
enough to do their part in controlling the spam problem. The spam filter
program I use (Mailwasher) has the ability (when configured properly) to
read the header info and separate out the spammers from the "friends list".
I'm seeing so much system constipation/damage from contaminated emails that
I was hoping for a change in Vista ... offering something other than the
spam/junk email setup that has gotten so much bad press for causing
additional problems.

 

[Gary VanderMolen]

I don't follow you. Are you saying that some of the recipients
on your mass mailing list are spammers who would then
harvest all those addresses for a spam list? If not, what
is the mechanism by which the mass mailing list is exposed
to spammers?

Clearly Windows Mail (or OE) is not optimized for sending
to a large mailing list, nor would I expect it to be.

 

[Don]

Sorry for the misleading ... this is not to do with me, but rather the bulk
of the users who inadvertently forward on, or send out multiple/mass
mailings without concern for the safety of the people they make vulnerable
by showing the addresses in the "To" part of the header. My thinking here is
that Vista already incorporates much more in the way of security measures
and the BCC feature (default for multiple recipients) would seem to be a
step in the right direction. I have long thought (and taught) that we make
it too easy for the spammers to harvest the information from emails
containing multiple recipients. The concept I had in mind would be for the
"BCC" to be triggered when more than 2 names were entered into the "To"
field of the header (then the 'To" line would automatically switch to
"BCC") - thereby concealing the "at risk" addresses. I regularly send back
emails to the senders of those mass mailing with detailed, step by step
instructions on how to use the BCC feature so as to better safeguard our
friends and colleagues. The spammers certainly take advantage of the large
harvests when the find those emails that get circulated, adding more
addresses as people keep forwarding them on. I say it's easier to add a
security feature than to try and reeducate the public on the safe way to
send on those "harmless" jokes/petitions.

Don
Computer Services

 

[Gary VanderMolen]

I'm not at all sure that the mechanism you're describing is
responsible for email addresses falling into the possession of
spammers. Hopefully people who do the mass addressing
are only sending stuff to known colleagues, friends, and
relatives, i.i., a rather benign group of people.

I'd be more concerned about privacy. Addressees on the
list have no need-to-know everyone else's email address.

 

[Steve Cochran]

I would nip it in the bud and tell people not to do all that forwarding
crap. But then again I can't stop my brother from doing it. He whined
about it when he had dialup, but that sure got fixed and I just love to get
5 meg stupid emails from him several times a day.

Maybe some like that, but I sure think its a waste of just about anything.

To all of a sudden divert the list to a BCC so everyone could be included is
just that much worse.

If they are complaining about being spammed from the lists they send out,
then that's what they get as far as I'm concerned. Spam for the spammers.

steve

 

[Carmine Castiglia]

Can anyone tell me if they know of any plan to add an option to the mail
program/send option, which would allow the user to set the default to a
BCC
(where email messages would be sent out as BCC when "create" was clicked).
With Vista's beefed up security settings it seems they would have thought
of
this to help fight the spam issues. If not, who would I contact to suggest
this option for an update/revision?

Don
Computer Services

I'm going to jump on Don's bandwagon and say that I agree - an optional
configuration which would hide the "CC:" input box and instead show the
"BCC:" box by default would be an excellent idea. Not necessarily as an
anti-spam measure, but an excellent idea nonetheless.

In my day job, I see emails arrive from Fortune 100 companies and small
$10M/yr companies wherein some fool CC:'d tens or hundreds of contacts,
thereby allowing every recipient to see the name and email address of every
other recipient. I have seen incidents of salesreps essentially giving away
their entire contacts database; something that a salesman of years past
would guard with his life. I have learned who my competition is at many
customer sites because a purchasing agent sent an open CC:'d email to all of
his vendors. And, I have learned some other things as well - for example,
whose PC's are likely to have pornographic images stored on them.

Imagine what would happen if a clerk in an AIDS or drug treatment center
were to send a "We're Moving!" email to an open "CC:" list...

Don's correct: an option which would permit only a single TO: address and
would show only the BCC: field while also making the CC: field inaccessible
would be a good thing. It would be especially good if the option could be
worked into system policies such that the average user in a business
environment would not be able to change it.

Carmine Castiglia
http://www.infosystemspro.com
PalmOS apps for engineers and machinists

 

[Guest]

Thanks Carol, your post will save many others those two days......I gave up
finding the little bugger and went to see if there was a post on the
subject.....

click on View at the top and choose
"all headers"

thanks again, Chuck

 

[Guest]

Carol, I meant to ask you.....have you also come across a means of sorting
contacts by the more normal LAST NAME........???

 

[Carmine Castiglia]

Carol, I meant to ask you.....have you also come across a means of
sorting
contacts by the more normal LAST NAME........???

Open Contacts and double-click an entry. Use the "Full Name" dropdown menu
to change, for example, from "Carmine Castiglia" to "Castiglia, Carmine".
Repeat for each of your contacts.

Wish there were an easier way, but I am not seeing it.

Carmine Castiglia
http://www.infosystemspro.com
PalmOS apps for engineers and machinists

 

[ddnorman]

I'm not at all sure that the mechanism you're describing is
responsible for email addresses falling into the possession of spammers.
Hopefully people who do the mass addressing
are only sending stuff to known colleagues, friends, and
relatives, i.i., a rather benign group of people.

I'd be more concerned about privacy. Addressees on the
list have no need-to-know everyone else's email address.

 

[Don]

I feel that I may have confused a few people with the idea I have. My idea
is that too many people reveal too many addresses (regardless of how or why
it happens) by using the "To" or even the "CC" field when addressing (or
forwarding) emails to multiple recipients. That having been said, it's a
matter of what's the most effective way of dealing with security matter. The
idea of educating the young learners in this area should be addressed at the
school level since it probably poses the best "long term" solution. But for
the rest of us, the effective tool for dealing with the ongoing issue can be
the use of the "BCC" as I have described. When multiple names are selected
for an email (which would normally go into the "To" or "To" and "CC"
fields), why not make that action cause the names to be moved to the "BCC"
field - where the recipients anmes are concealed. This does cause the "To"
field to show "undisclosed recipient". but I believe that most spam filters
look first at the sender in the "From" field to identify "friends" which
then allows the mail to be received. I do know that filters can also be made
to key on the "To" field. I also use the "To" filter but with the filter
configured to blacklist and delete and messages which "do not" contain my
exact email address. My spam filter program has no problem reading the
concealed header information to find my email address within ... and
allowing the mail to be received. I get multiple emails every day from
friends who have sent out messages to multiple recipents (such as club
members where I am included) and the "undisclosed recipient" has never been
an issue as long as the sender is on my "friends" list. The concealment of
the recipients info is the desired result in order to add to the security of
the individuals at risk. If the addition of a manditory "BCC" feature will
cure the problem, then I feel it's a step in the right direction and easier
to implement than the retraining (which I am still working on).

 

[Guest]

Open Contacts and double-click an entry. Use the "Full Name" dropdown menu
to change, for example, from "Carmine Castiglia" to "Castiglia, Carmine".
Repeat for each of your contacts.

Wish there were an easier way, but I am not seeing it.

Carmine Castiglia
http://www.infosystemspro.com
PalmOS apps for engineers and machinists

Carmine, thanks for that steer. As it happens I found some of my contacts
were sorting by last name....I investigated and found that they were
'different' than the others and stumbled on the FULL NAME method of changing
their appearance. What was painful was having to do that on the whole list,
one by one. I searched for a default setting or preference, but never
found one. I did find I could select a larger group of contacts and then
click on EDIT and then cycle through them much more rapidly. I noted that
the number you selected could be 'too many' and it would not go to edit mode.
A little indicator "like a busy" comes up when it is going there....and I
just reduced number selected when it wouldn't. That helped.

Chuck

 

[anthonyp]

Have you tried to open contacts. Then on the right side window pane, Right
click then goto "sort by" then goto "more". Here you can select the fields
and order of whatever variable you want to sort by. You can even rearrange
the column order to your liking. Hope this helps. I was able to pick and
choose whatever I wanted to sort by and the entire list is sorted in one
shot.

 

[Guest]

Like chuckmva, thank you for saving my time.

Cheers Bill

 

[Guest]

--
oldknight59 wrote:

Good afternoon
Not sure if this is in the right place or not, but...

Can anyone tell me how to get Vista Windows Mail to automaticaly finish
e-mail addresses, after the first few keystrokes like Outlook Express does?
Sometimes it works, mostly it does not.

I have to look up the address in the contact list (now that I have figured
out how to list them LAST NAME FIRST) and then type in each one.

oldknight59

 

[mac]

--
oldknight59 wrote:

Good afternoon
Not sure if this is in the right place or not, but...

Can anyone tell me how to get Vista Windows Mail to automaticaly finish
e-mail addresses, after the first few keystrokes like Outlook Express
does?
Sometimes it works, mostly it does not.

I have to look up the address in the contact list (now that I have figured
out how to list them LAST NAME FIRST) and then type in each one.

oldknight59

Auto-complete of contacts in WM only works on addresses that have been
accessed previously.
i.e. on any subsequent use.

 

[mac]

--
oldknight59 wrote:

Good afternoon
Not sure if this is in the right place or not, but...

I think you ought to make a couple of changes in the way that you post to a
newsgroup

First go to tools>accounts>news>ms communities>properties>and remove your
email address from the name line, change it to oldknight59 only.

Never hijack someone else's thread with your question, as you did here,
start a new post, give it a 'unique' subject so that it does not get
threaded to older posts.

You might try a more effective method of munging your address too?

HTH?