RootsWeb mailing lists - what risk of spammers harvesting my

[tim sewell]

I apologise if this query is seen as OT (anyone seeing it as such please
just ignore it and press the delete button).

For a while I have been lurking on several of the RootsWeb mailing lists,
but am reluctant to actively participate on account of a perceived risk of
presenting my genuine email address to all of the spambots looking for new
pickings.

RootsWeb help desk has told me that there is no such risk, saying in
response to my query "how do I obscure my real address" : "There is no need.
All email addresses are masked in the browsable mailing list archives so
they will not be seen by the spambots".

But if I can read everyone's addresses (including those on lists to which I
have not subscribed), why would the spambots be unable to do the same? (I
have asked the same question in a follow up to RootsWeb, but would very much
like to hear some second opinions).

The only factor that I can see which might possibly have some effect is that
the (full) addresses are enclosed within the type of brackets used (or so I
believe) for HTML tags. Would that have the effect of "masking" them to
spambots? And surely, even if that speculation has some rational basis,
wouldn't it be a simple matter to modify the spambots to "see through" the
masking?

What do other mailing list members do about all this - do you just get no
spam (therefore no problem), or do you get tonnes of it together with your
list messages, but accept that as a fact of life?

TIA and Regards,
Tim Sewell
(Please remove my fairly obvious spam trap if you wish to reply by direct
email)

[Chris Watts]

"tim sewell" <[email protected]> wrote in
message news:[email protected]...

I apologise if this query is seen as OT (anyone seeing it as such please
just ignore it and press the delete button).

For a while I have been lurking on several of the RootsWeb mailing lists,
but am reluctant to actively participate on account of a perceived risk of
presenting my genuine email address to all of the spambots looking for new
pickings.

RootsWeb help desk has told me that there is no such risk, saying in
response to my query "how do I obscure my real address" : "There is no
need.
All email addresses are masked in the browsable mailing list archives so
they will not be seen by the spambots".
Many rootsweb mailing list, such as this one, are gatewayed to usenet

newsgroups. And it is 100% certain that if you include a genuine e-mail
address
there then it will be harvested by a spambot.

Chris

[tim sewell]

"Chris Watts" <[email protected]>

Many rootsweb mailing list, such as this one, are gatewayed to usenet
newsgroups. And it is 100% certain that if you include a genuine e-mail
address there then it will be harvested by a spambot.

Chris

Chris,

That is exactly what I was thinking, but the following clarification from
RootsWeb has encouraged me.

"Spambots do not look at web pages in a browser. They look at the file on
the server, i.e. the raw HTML.

While viewing an archived message in your browser, right click on the page
and select "View Source". That is what the spambot sees. The email addresses
have been masked using ASCII character set and appear as as series of
characters
and numbers, e.g. your email address would appear as
timseweetc, etc"

While I still have my doubts, I have established a new 'disposable' email
address specifically for RootsWeb lists and nothing else. If that starts to
collect large quantities of spam, then I will close it and think again.

Thanks for your help.
Regards,
Tim S.
(Please remove my fairly obvious spam trap to reply by direct email)

[Steve Hayes]

On Sun, 29 Aug 2004 19:27:15 +1000, "tim sewell"
<[email protected]> wrote:

What do other mailing list members do about all this - do you just get no
spam (therefore no problem), or do you get tonnes of it together with your
list messages, but accept that as a fact of life?

I am reading this on a usenet newsgroup where there is an absolute certainty
that my address will be harvested by spambots. I therefore use a webmail
address for newsgroups. Most webmail providers have a sustem for the automatic
quarantining or deletion of spam.


--
Steve Hayes from Tshwane, South Africa
http://www.geocities.com/Athens/7734/stevesig.htm
E-mail - see web page, or parse: shayes at dunelm full stop org full stop uk

[Robert M. Riches Jr.]

On 2004-08-29, tim sewell <[email protected]> \
wrote:

"Chris Watts" <[email protected]

Many rootsweb mailing list, such as this one, are gatewayed to usenet
newsgroups. And it is 100% certain that if you include a genuine e-mail
address there then it will be harvested by a spambot.

Chris

Chris,
That is exactly what I was thinking, but the following clarification from
RootsWeb has encouraged me.

"Spambots do not look at web pages in a browser. They look at the file on
the server, i.e. the raw HTML.

While viewing an archived message in your browser, right click on the page
and select "View Source". That is what the spambot sees. The email addresses
have been masked using ASCII character set and appear as as series of
characters
and numbers, e.g. your email address would appear as
timseweetc, etc"

While I still have my doubts, I have established a new 'disposable' email
address specifically for RootsWeb lists and nothing else. If that starts to
collect large quantities of spam, then I will close it and think again.

Do I understand correctly from this thread that the raw html
uses the ampersand numeric encodings but the browser shows a
legible email address? If that's the case, if a browser can
unravel the encodings to display the email address in what
looks like plain text, then it's a sure thing the spambots
can do the same. IIRC, there's a method supplied by Java
(the language I wrote my HTML parser/processor in) that does
the decoding in one easy step.

(I like disposable email addresses. I have found mine
useful. If it ever gets hit too hard, I'll dispose of it
and use the next one. There are lots of numbers to choose
from.

Good luck.

Robert Riches
[email protected]
(Yes, that is one of my email addresses.)

[Chris Watts]

"tim sewell" <[email protected]> wrote in
message news:[email protected]...

"Chris Watts" <[email protected]

Many rootsweb mailing list, such as this one, are gatewayed to usenet
newsgroups. And it is 100% certain that if you include a genuine e-mail
address there then it will be harvested by a spambot.

Chris

Chris,
That is exactly what I was thinking, but the following clarification from
RootsWeb has encouraged me.

"Spambots do not look at web pages in a browser. They look at the file on
the server, i.e. the raw HTML.

While viewing an archived message in your browser, right click on the page
and select "View Source". That is what the spambot sees. The email
addresses
have been masked using ASCII character set and appear as as series of
characters
and numbers, e.g. your email address would appear as
timseweetc, etc"

While I still have my doubts, I have established a new 'disposable' email
address specifically for RootsWeb lists and nothing else. If that starts
to
collect large quantities of spam, then I will close it and think again.

Thanks for your help.
Regards,
Tim S.
(Please remove my fairly obvious spam trap to reply by direct email)

I am looking at your messsage in a usenet newsgroup reader and can see your
e-mail address (I haven't obscured it in my reply as it is spamtrapped!) - I
can also see it plainly by looking at the message source.

Your proposed course of action is wise. The Rootsweb advice is just plain
wrong in the context of their lists when gatewayed to a newsgroup.

Chris