Biz: Be careful how you screen your e-mail!

[Geoff Hart]

What with all the spam I receive, I've been deleting huge numbers of  
messages from people with unlikely-sounding names. But because I work  
with clients from all around the world, I've always been conscious of  
the risk of blindly deleting a message, no matter how unlikely it may  
seem: sometimes the message is legitimate, even when it sits amidst a  
host of similar-seeming spam. (I get a lot of spam with "manuscript"  
in the subject line, for instance.)

Take, for example, the message I received today from someone whose e- 
mail address begins "mbeceli". Being a word geek, my first thought  
was "no legitimate person would write to me using a name that reads  
as _imbecilic_". But a little voice at the back of my head said "no,  
wait!", so I opened the message to check. Turns out it was a  
legitimate query. And it's not the first time that's happened.

So be wary what you delete. Sometimes you'll have to read through a  
batch of spam to avoid missing potentially important messages.


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-- Geoff Hart
ghart at videotron.ca / geoffhart at mac.com
www.geoff-hart.com
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