ATTENTION: YOUR EMAIL ON FORUM

[Vadim]

I do not want to make it sound like a panic, or inspire any idea, but since I registered on this forum and indicated my valid e-mail address, I started to receive all kind of junk to my e-mailbox.
I have my e-mailbox for 2 years, and have not given it out to any website before.
Make your own conclusions.

[Vadim]

I think there are bots who appear as Guest and ask silly questions like "What are you talking about" or "Guys I want to know about cpap". But they actually scan forum for valid email addresses.

[GreenIce]

I notice you put your email address in the forum in previous thread. That's how the bots got your email address. Since anyone, including bot can access this forum , it is not wise to put e-mail address in messages. Use PM instead.

[Guest]

I notice you put your email address in the forum in previous thread. That's how the bots got your email address. Since anyone, including bot can access this forum , it is not wise to put e-mail address in messages. Use PM instead.

That will do it. I of course have 3 e-mail address and I only use the primary for well trusted sites.

[Bookbear]

Another way to handle this is to list your legitimate email address in this form:

homer.removethis.simpson@fox.net

Real live people will know how to contact you, but mindless bots will swallow it whole and get bounce-backs for their efforts.

spam, spam, spam, spam, spam, spam, spam, spam, spam, wonderful spam...

[GumbyCT]

At first I didn't have the email visible for everyone, no prob - the day I changed it to make it visible I started getting spam to that email addy, but I figured that would happen a change the addy to one I could dispose of.

Another way to handle this is to list your legitimate email address in this form:

homer.removethis.simpson@fox.net

Real live people will know how to contact you, but mindless bots will swallow it whole and get bounce-backs for their efforts.

spam, spam, spam, spam, spam, spam, spam, spam, spam, wonderful spam...

That is one way- I experimented by putting "nospam" but found out the profile email addy is the same one used to notify you of new posts, pm's, etc.

So now I am experimenting with this as my Avatar, but that means I had to retire the Gumby that Bookbear made for me. I read that the bots can't get your addy if it is in an image, ha. So you don't really need the "at" like I did.

So now what happens when I change my Avatar? We'll find out eh? So if the avatar gets changed the image just said something like "emale me homer.simpson at fox.net"

[jules]

As far as I know your profile email isn't visible to others unless you choose to make it visible. You get notice of pms via that email true but others don't know it unless you advertise it.

You can choose to have your email, MSN, AIM, Yahoo messengers, ICQ # so that people can find them. For the messengers it isn't just click on the button but actually find the account name by looking at the source code. I doubt a bot would do a view source code.

The big problem is that once your email is in the big list the spam bots use, it will stay there forever. I still get spam to my old old work email account that has been obsolete for at least 7 years.

I haven't had the spam problems mentioned to my email associated with my cpaptalk user name. I doesn't get any more spam since I joined cpaptalk than I did before.

[GumbyCT]

As far as I know your profile email isn't visible to others unless you choose to make it visible.

Exactly.

For me it wasn't until I made my addy visible that the spam started. Luckily I anticipated just this response so I used an addy I could change or delete.

I don't know if it was Vadim but I remember seeing where someone had put the addy right in the post. BIG mistake.

Another way they get your addy is when you have some do-gooder (friend or family) that wants to send you an E-card or news article, anything that says "Email a Friend", I avoid like the plague. Like Jules said, once your on "their list" you are on it for life.

I tell them to just copy/paste the link into an email if they want me to see but don't ever put my email into the "Email a Friend" form.

[jules]

If you are worried about spam, I would urge anyone who has an email listed in a message body to go back and edit it out. This includes Vadim.

If you find a post of yours, you can click on your profile then find all your posts (I am sure there are other way too like using search for posts). Look at all your old messages and edit the emails out.

You can't stop any any damage that in already in the pipe line but you can stop future damage.

[goose]

I've now had two different email addy's on this forum (email has changed) -- neither has been the recipient of spam.
NEVER put your email in a post!!!!!! That is one sure way of making a spammer bot smile and load you up.....

I also have a "special" ID that I use for web requests for email -- 95% of that ends up in the SPAM folder which isn't even reviewed - just emptied. The yahoo mail system has an excellent filter. I also have hotmail and gmail ID's but have not used them for spam so I don't know the filtering capabilities of those two web mail providers.....

Always be on your guard!!!! Ever vigilant!!!!

cheers
goose

[admiralross]

Yeah, and if you have an admin email account. Forget it you will be spammed to death! As far as I know Yahoo has disposable email accounts for signing up to forums and filling out surveys. Once you are done with them you can kill them off.