CNN.com has an interesting article on misdirected email and its consequences. It quotes a study by AOL that found 32% of respondents had sent an email to someone other than its intended recepient, resulting in everything from some colorful language to the loss of a $5 million account! Here’s an excerpt:

• Type out the person’s full name when addressing your email. If you type just the first few letters and let your email program fill out the rest based on your address book, it could easily misroute your message without your realizing it.

• Double-check the addresses of your intended recipients before you hit “send.” Do you really want all the people to get this particular message?

• Be sure to notify your company’s legal department if there is any chance that governance, compliance or privacy regulations were violated as a result of something you sent by mistake.

• Immediately notify the person who received the email that it was a mistake and, if possible, ask them not to read the message — or at least to delete it right away.

Important tips to remember for sure!