Joe Blow
16th-May-2007, 01:32 PM
I have noticed recently that some people have been posting their email addresses in various threads on ASF. This is not a practice I would encourage unless you like deleting spam.
Many may not be aware of it but there are spam bots roaming the internet scanning web pages (including forum threads) seeking out email addresses. Rest assured that when your email is harvested by one of these bots it will be mercilessly pounded with spam. I know first hand, it has happened to some of mine.
Read more about spam bots here: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Spambot
I suggest that if people are going to post their email they do it in a format that is not recognisable as an email address such as myemail [at] myisp [dot] com. However, even this is probably not safe as these kind of tactics are well known to spammers and bots now or in the future may be programmed to identify emails addresses posted in this way.
All things considered, emails are best exchanged via PM or email. That is the only way to ensure they are not compromised.
Many may not be aware of it but there are spam bots roaming the internet scanning web pages (including forum threads) seeking out email addresses. Rest assured that when your email is harvested by one of these bots it will be mercilessly pounded with spam. I know first hand, it has happened to some of mine.
Read more about spam bots here: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Spambot
I suggest that if people are going to post their email they do it in a format that is not recognisable as an email address such as myemail [at] myisp [dot] com. However, even this is probably not safe as these kind of tactics are well known to spammers and bots now or in the future may be programmed to identify emails addresses posted in this way.
All things considered, emails are best exchanged via PM or email. That is the only way to ensure they are not compromised.
