This time of year can be great to get in touch with loved one's and friends via email using the barrage of free e-cards on the net and it's a common occurrence to see a stream of chain emails, you know those emails which say pass this onto 2 friends and your wish will come true in 2 days, pass it to 10 friends and your wish is granted in 10 hours and so on. Those emails which tell you “I want this back” are also becoming more popular, especially at this time of year although care is needed with these emails as many people simply “reply to all” when sending on these type of messages which clearly displays all the previous recipients of the mail.

This is the ideal scam for spammers who often start these types of mail and can collect many email addresses from unsuspecting well wishers. If you receive this type of mail, by all means, return it to the friend that sent it to you but don't use the “reply to all” function of your email client but instead just use the “reply” button and when forwarding it to other friends remove any existing email addresses from the message itself. Remember never to respond to emails such as this that come from unknown senders as this could be a deliberate attempt to spam you!.