Computer and Software Support


Why you should use Blind Copy (BCC) 

What is Blind Copy?

Blind Copy allows the sender to send an email to someone and let someone else see the email without others knowing they got the email. Here is an example.

I send an email from me support@upgradenrepair.com to Tim@xyz.com, John@xyz.com. I carbon copied (CC)  Bob@xyz.com and blind copied (BCC) Steve@xyz.com, and Roy@xyz.com with subject hello and the body says you won the raffle drawing.

   

Here is what would happen

  1. Everyone listed would get the emails

  2. Here is how everyone would see the recipients in the email they receive

    • Tim@xyz.com, Bob@xyz.com, and john@xyz@xyz.com would see the following email addresses

    • Tim@xyz.com, john@xyz.com, and Bob@xyz.com email addresses

    • Tim@xyz.com, john@xyz.com, and Bob@xyz.com would not see

    • Steve@xyz.com and Roy@xyz.com email addresses

    • Steve@xyz would see

    • Tim@xyz.com, john@xyz.com, and Bob@xyz.com's email addresses

    • Steve@xyz.com would not see

    • Roy@xyz.com's email address

    • Bob@xyz.com would see

    • Tim@xyz.com, john@xyz.com and Bob@xyz.com's email addresses

    • Bob@xyz.com would not see

    • Steve@xyz's email address

If you use BCC (blind copy) then people's email addresses are protected. If Steve deletes all the email addresses before he sends it and sends it as BCC than no one's email address will be compromised but yours. If you are sending a chain letter such as a joke or something use an email address that you don't use for correspondence. You can have more than one email address. Create you an email address for this purpose. If a spammer gets that email address it won't hurt you because it is not the email address you use.

Here is why it is important to use Blind copy and to delete emails when you forward them

To use the BCC do the following (This is for Outlook but applies to other email programs also)

   

  1. Type in your email address in the To field (Use one that you don't want spam from. If you don't have one there is numerous places to get a free email address from such as hotmail, yahoo and others)

  2. Put the email addresses you want to get this email in the BCC field  (when they get the email, the will see your email address but won't see each other's email address)

  3. If this is a forwarded email (as in the example above), delete the section that shows the previous emails (I have it in red above).

For more information on how to blind copy, click here

Here is why it is important to use Blind copy and to delete emails addresses in the body of the email when you forward them