The Internet is a vast landscape of information that is sent from a combination of known and unknown sources. Anyone who has had e-mail for an extended amount of time has realized that it is a magnet that attracts a lot of spam, junk and unwanted e-mail forwards. So how do you stop e-mail forwards and prevent spam from cluttering up your mailbox?

Forwarding e-mails can be a great way to share ideas, information and news if done properly. If you are not careful, it can ruin relationships and even damage businesses financially. When you receive mass e-mails, they usually include numerous recipients and copyees. Some senders simply send e-mails to their entire contact list, which is a mixture of family, friends and business names and addresses.

E-mail senders should be careful with these mass e-mails. Certain jokes, hoaxes and images might be acceptable for personal friends but might not be appreciated by business clients. Most business e-mails are monitored, so people need to be careful about what they send and receive while working.

There are many best practices for e-mail forwards that include prudence when adding new e-mail addresses to your contact list. Don’t add someone to your contact list after just one meeting, it is wiser to add people with whom you’ve developed a deeper, longer relationship.

Proper e-mail etiquette is to “ask” if people are interested in receiving forwarded material. Also, “ask” the original sender if it is OK to forward e-mails.

Many e-mails include hidden formatting, attachments and addresses that may not be sensible to forward. You should “share content not addresses.” There have been extensive e-mail contact list scams encouraging people to join fake social networks, spend money on unwanted services and send money to people in danger, which is diverted to criminals.

Before forwarding an e-mail it is wise to edit out content, images and addresses that are not important to the new recipient. There are applications and software that permit users to clean up e-mails quickly before forwarding. Sometimes, it is easier to start with a new e-mail, then cut-and-paste any interesting content to make sure that unwanted elements are not accidentally forwarded.

Also, don’t assume your recipient knows why you are sending the message. Some subject lines might simply say “Re:” that might not makes sense. With all of the electronic mail that people receive, it is easy to ignore questionable messages without personal content. Some spam filters might throw away messages considered junk that have vague descriptions.

If you continually receive unwanted e-mails, there are a number of filters you could use to “block,” “automatically delete” or “mark them as unsafe.” Different mail services use different terminology. Some have a “junk” or “spam” button allowing you to “mark a sender as unsafe.” You can also send these e-mails to special isolated folders. Others permit you to set “rules” to determine what you deem acceptable. A “blacklist” or “blocked list” can block e-mails from specific sources.

If you are sending a mass e-mail to a lot of people, it is wise to use the “blind copy” option, listed as “bc:” or “bcc:” in some mail services. This “blind copy” function hides e-mail addresses from others who receive the e-mail when you place the e-mail address in the blind copy box. Your “blind copyees” will receive the e-mail and only see your e-mail address; all others will be hidden from their view. This prevents a lot of potential headaches.