You’ve seen the emails. “Forward this Message and Help This Fatally Ill Child Get His One Wish Granted.” The email claims X cents will be donated every time the message is sent. The email is forwarded and all the names in that contact list get forwarded with it. When the email is returned to its originator – aka The Spammer – attached is now a huge list of valid addresses.
I understand, we all want to help. It’s this desire to believe that doing something as simple and effortless as forwarding an email can actually help someone. But it can’t. It won’t. What it actually does is share personal information, of you, your friends, and your family, with spammers. Then we all get more spam and we wonder “Where is this coming from?”