I just love jokes and funny stories! (I just thought I'd share that! lol).

Since entering the world of emails and the internet many years ago, I have thoroughly enjoyed many a great joke and story passed on to me by my friends.

(There have also been some fairly ordinary ones too, but hey, you can't please everyone all of the time! - hehe). What appeals to one person, doesn't necessarily appeal to the next - that's true of everything in life.

Of course, emails are obviously a fantastic way for helping to keep in touch with friends and family, and business partners too - that's a given! Just don't forget to keep in touch with your friends and family via the telephone too!

Anyway, when I first started forwarding emails to others, I just did what everyone else did: I pressed the "Forward" button, typed in the email addresses of those people I wanted to send it to, then pressed "Send". Voila! Easy!

A brand new email from me would be sent the same way: type in the email addresses, type email of course!, then press "Send".

I'm sure you would have received emails from someone you know that contained heaps and heaps and heaps of other email addresses! There may be some people amongst these addresses that you know and others you don't.

Sometimes you have to scroll down for what seems like forever, just to get to the body of the email!

I didn't know any better back then ... but I do now, and that's what I'm about to share with you.

Over the past couple of years, I've received so many emails from people who I have no knowledge of. I have not subscribed to their email list, and have had no prior contact with them. The more of these I receive, the more it irks me.

The main ones that come to mind are those emails from Dr So and So, or Professor Somebody-or-another, or the person begging for my help to transfer some money into my bank account (to keep it safe!) and for doing so, I'll receive a share of it. Hmm ...

Or someone's long lost cousin's, uncle's, best friend's, next door neighbour passed away and I have been willed money from their estate ... yeah right!!

I'm sure you get the picture!

There are some extremely clever and nasty people out there in cyberspace. Imagine what a difference they could make if they put their knowledge to good use instead of trying to deceive people?

Then of course, there are those that aren't so smart ...

Take for example an email I received on 21st August 2008, supposedly from the Federal Bureau of Investigation, Subject: FBI New Payment Update.

For starters, there is a terrible over-use of words in it, and it's full of spelling mistakes - I hardly think the real FBI wouldn't have proofread what they'd written! lol

Secondly, by the time you get to the end of the first paragraph, it has totally contradicted what it said at the start of the same paragraph! lol

And thirdly, right at the bottom of the email are the contact details for a company, not the FBI, that the email obviously originated from - hmm - not so bright afterall! lol

While I know that I'm smart enough to not fall for something like this, it really makes me wonder how many people DO get fooled into handing over their details to these scumbags? People who are utterly desperate for money and feel that they have nothing to lose by handing over their details - I shudder at the thought ...

Obviously, anyone who is using any social networking site or posting any comments on the internet and leaving their email address could be a target.

Actually, only yesterday, I received a message on MySpace from a person claiming to be one these "Professors", requesting my contact details etc. I reported him quick smart - hehe - and I hope that the other recipients of his scummy message did the same!

There are many ways in which you can email safely and you can find out more by doing your own search, however, I would like to share just one tip to help cut back on the chances of your email address potentially falling into the wrong hands.

While this tip certainly isn't foolproof, it will help ...

Before you forward an email to someone, or send an email to numerous recipients, please do the following:

Instead of simply pressing "forward" then sending the entire email to another list of people (which will include the same list of people who received the message when you did), please right-click on "To" then select each person from your address book who you are sending the email to, then click on "BCC" (this means blind carbon copy - which means that nobody other than you can see who the email is going to).

What this also means is that instead of having your email address and that of everybody else being sent all over the world, only those people who you are happy to have your email address (and that of the other people in the email) will have it.

You then go into the body of the email and delete all the other email addresses from there. All this information that has been sent to you will still be there in the original email you received. You are simply modifying it to forward on to others.

While this might not seem like a big deal, I'll go back to this point again: I have received countless scam emails, plus others trying to sell medication, sex toys and the like! I would easily get 20 of them a week, to say the least. I know just to delete them. Not to mention the "just click on this link to verify your details" .... ones supposedly from any of the banks, or Paypal etc! - NEVER FALL FOR THOSE ONES!

I know that nobody I personally correspond with via email would send my details to any of these people, but somehow they have got their hands on my email address!!

And the most logical and easy way this could have happened, is by my email address being bounced around all over the world via innocent emails (yes, those hiliarious jokes and stories that we all love to share with one another).

Somewhere along the line, someone with the intention of attempting to scam people has included my email address in their scummy email ... and so on and so on. I can guarantee you that I'm not the only person this is happening to.

While most of us are smart enough to know to simply delete these obviously foreign, scam emails, here's something else to think about:

What if you were sent an email that appeared to be "normal", written in clear, correct English and you opened it thinking it was from a friend (or from your bank!) , only to find that your hard drive was wiped out, or your bank account details hacked etc.

These are just a couple of examples of what could happen to you, and what has happened to others. I know I said this before, but sadly, there are some very nasty people lurking out there in cyberspace.

I know it is much quicker to simply press "forward" and continue to send your emails to others the way most people do (just like I used to), but think of the alternative: while hopefully you never find yourself in the position of being scammed or your computer hacked into, it happens to people everyday. You or one of your friends or family could be next!

Help stop it by sending emails safely. PRACTICE SAFE EMAILING, and help reduce the chance of your computer catching a nasty virus!

I hope this information helps, and of course, feel free to share this hub with others - only do it safely!

Now I'll get down from my soapbox ... although I am much taller on my soapbox - hehe! ... I'll get down now ...