Has anyone been a victim of explicit content, or just emails from people posing as members? I have! So goes being on the internet, we just have to grin and bare it, I suppose. Please do not think of me as an alarmist, just curious.

I have received a few e-mails from members, but nothing's made it past the spam filter that was anything other than a genuine member, and none of them had explicit content.

sounds like a spam bot .. I would remove your email from your profile and state "you want it .. ask for it" .. (or something more eloquent .. like ... provided on request)

or

change it to yadda-yadda "at" yadda-yadda "dot" com

problem is .. it's already been propagated to 100 thousand lists

You're not an alarmist Sandra, not at all. I used to have my email addy posted on the site here too, but I ended up having to take it off because of some problems. I get emails from members too, but I know who they are so now, no problem ! I only give out my email to people I know.

Thank you all for your comments, it is so nice to see the veteran caedes members adding their ideas.

a good spam filter helps...

" Veteran " ??!!!!! Who's a veteran ?? I SO want a recount !

I've had no problem-o. Like Beanie Boy said above...I don't post my e-mail address, but, some members have it and I get stuff from them just fine.

Instead of putting a smart replacement in the email field it is better to put your real address and then click on the checkbox that makes the email "private". That way your email is not displayed on the site, but we can still get in touch with you if we need to.

uh .. yeah .. that's what I meant .. (*sheepish grin*)

Although that may explain a few things on my end, it may be time for me to make mine Private also.

Bummer Curt......I was looking forward to getting your email ;o(

Hi Sandra, { waves at everyone else}
I made an email address especially for Caedes...but did get some very spooky emails recently. I have since removed it { the email address} from site.

For people using Gmail ...

the following was posted on WinCustomize .. way back in the snowy winter of "oh four"


`·.¸¸.·´´¯`··._.·`·.¸¸.·´´¯`··._.·`·.¸¸.·´´¯`··._.·`·.¸¸.·´´¯`··._.·

Using Gmail to control spam

Saturday, December 11, 2004 By pictoratus
Discussion: Personal Computing



I ran across an article the other day that
told about an interesting feature of gmail that can
really be useful in controlling the spam we all get
in our mail daily. It allows you to have numerous
aliases that all get delivered to your gmail inbox,
while giving you some information about how you
might have gotten onto a particular spammer's list.

In the past, I've always resorted to having multiple
email addresses; using one or two to sign in or
register on sites that I suspected might sell my
address to a spammer. With gmail, I have an
alternative that works even better and keeps me from
having to check a lot of email accounts to get all
my legitimate messages. Here's how it works.

Let's say my gmail address is pic@gmail.com (it
really isn't, so don't try mailing me at that
address) and I want to register at a site I am
concerned about. I can sign up as usual, but give my
address with a + and a relevant identifier after my
name. For example if I register at Shady.com, I
would enter my email as pic+shady@gmail.com.

Any mail sent to pic+shady@gmail.com gets delivered to
my normal gmail inbox and the +shady part is still
on the message. If I start getting a lot of spam to
that address, I know Shady.com probably sold my
address. And if it really gets out of control, I can
create a filter in gmail that will automatically
trash anything addressed to pic+shady@gmail.com

This isn't the ultimate solution to spam, but it
gives me a certain amount of control over the spam I
receive without a lot of effort. And it also let's
me know where to send a nasty complaint about
selling my email address.

There is also the other truth… called spammers get your e-mail address no matter what you do. I have a g-mail account… it's my secret account.

Only 4 people know it… about a month after I got it back when only 2 people knew it, I started getting spam. I know both these people and neither would have benefited from selling the address anywhere. I have never used it to shop or register anywhere, but somehow… the lil bastids got ahold of it. Fortunately gmail's spam filter also works really well and I never see it 8•)

spam bots spider their way thru the intarwebz and lift email addresses from wherever they can .. whenever they find an @ symbol they take it and everything on both sides of it .. that's how the original poster (Sandra) .. got snookered .. didn't you feel that tingly feeling a couple weeks back? .. see? .. spider

factoid .. The average human eats 8 spiders in their lifetime at night.

way back when, I had a Hotmail account that was getting hammered by spam .. nothing I tried to block it worked (I began to think MS wanted me to get it) .. so I let the account sit idle for 90 days and MS killed it .. I moved elsewhere .. and I can only think of ONE time I gave out the account name where I shouldn't have

oh… i thought that tingly feeling was you 8•P

I already block almost every known email "spambot" from accessing the site, but some still get through. I'm thinking about converting the email on Profiles to an image instead. That should make it much more difficult for them to automatically grab all the addresses.

Ya got my vote!

can they grab it while it's embedded in the HTML somewhere? (hidden as private)

If you set it as private it is not released from the database ever (except if I want it of course).

I haven't had a problem since I put my email addy up on site here as private.

you mean .. email problems

I mean, I haven't had a problem with nutty emails from nutty boyos here on site.....since I did that, ..... that & put on my pers page that I was married. I imagine that was a big help too.

don't call me a nutty boyo .. and why won't you accept my emails anymore?

I promised to be good

What ??!! Your emails aren't getting through ??!! Heads will roll for this !

Somebody should explain to Sandra how to unsubscribe from a discussion .. :o)

What ? You think Sandra wouldn't be entertained by our witty repartee ?