This is an excerpt from a published article I wrote. There is no excuse for forwarding what I call friendly spam which is junk email from known contacts which appears convincing, but is actually spam. Small business owners should be cautious, or you may risk loss in credibility. In most cases the spam contains an alarming message quoted from a supposedly credible source that shocks the reader and requests that you forward this to everyone you know.

My advice for everyone including small business owners is visit the Urban Legends website and do a search on key words in the topic of any email you receive begging you to forward it to everyone you know. Urban Legends at www.snopes.com is my choice for debunking false emails. They track and investigate vast numbers of email hoaxes and give detailed reports on each with either a true or false conclusion. It is extremely rare that I search a suspicious message and find out that Urban Legends determined it was not a hoax, but that happens, too.

Use caution before forwarding email. Your credibility could be at stake. Read the full article published online here including tips for protecting your small business contact identities.