Tips about Email Problems from Brandywine, Maryland

Email Problems

The two most common "problems" with email are "Chain Letters" and "Spam."

"Chain Letters" are email messages that tell you to send a copy to someone else - sometimes it tells you to send it to five or more people. Any message that tells you to copy to someone (anyone) else and then they are supposed to do the same thing and so on, results in a "chain" of messages and thus can be considered a "chain letter" regardless of their additional content. For more information about chain letters, go to our Chain Letter FAQ.

"Spam" is an unsolicited email message or "junk mail". It doesn't have to be sent by a business to be considered spam. Even non-profit organizations and religious organizations or individuals can send messages that are "selling" or promoting something. Generally the message is not sent directly to you, so the "To" header is often someone you don't know or the same name as the sender or no name at all since your address is in the "BCC" (blind carbon copy) header along with many others. They are occasionally sent to you as an individual, though, and I would still consider them "spam" if there is no personal content in the message. Some spam messages are offensive, too. To learn more about them, including how to get rid of them, see our Spam FAQ.

For more information about Email Software go to our Software FAQ.

For information about Cleaning Up Your Email Messages. Go back to our Internet FAQ Home page.

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