At the bottom of my emails you will see this:

__________________________________________
Please do not include my email as a cc in
messages to large numbers of people, use
bcc. Don't be fooled by internet hoaxes!

Thanks

This is simply a way of me avoiding SPAM. Imagine you forward an email to loads of people and they forward it to loads of people and so on.. Thousands of people will have a copy of your email address. Browse through next time you receive one of these emails and you'll see what I mean. Eventually it could get to a spammer. Today I took one of these emails and passed it through a program to extract email addresses, 3 seconds later I had 221 email addresses ready to send spam to! Have respect for the people you are sending emails to; presumably they are your friends!

I suggest using bcc (blind carbon copy) because when you do this each recipient only sees that they have received the email and not the other people who you sent the email to. If they can't see it neither can a spammer. Most, if not all, email programs and web-based email services (eg Hotmail) support this - have a poke around and look in the help file! You may need to put one address in the to file; put in yours. AND if you want to send forwards CLEAN THEM UP! delete the headers and comments from all the people that sent it before you! Don't pass on their details to everyone else!

The only forwarded message I liked!

One ploy that helps spammers get hold of your email is the petition email, where you forward it to twenty friends and a copy to the organiser. Unfortunately this organiser is often a spammer, he gets a copy of all your friends email addresses and adds them to the list next time he sends out spam. Your good intentions have been abused!

Every so often a hoax email flies around the internet, be sceptical and if in doubt don't pass it on. If your sure it's for real then remember clean it up and use bcc!
There are loads of hoax emails whizzing round the internet; don't be duped! You can browse or search for hoaxes at F-secure's Security Information Center

Virus warnings that frequently circulate around the web are often hoaxes and sometimes can be used to catch email addresses as above. If you want to know about new viruses sign up to Sophos's excellent notification service which will alert you to serious virus emergencies.