The time has come to again remind people to hide their e-mail addresses.

 

There are many reasons for doing this.

 

1. If you are exposing your passport e-mail address, a hacker is halfway to getting into your account. Once they have your account they have access to all of your groups.

 

2. Having your e-mail address exposed allows your account to be spoofed. (allows someone to make posts in your username by e-mail without having to get into your account). Being spoofed can result in your being banned to stop the posts. (Also keep in mind it does not matter if you have a fake e-mail address showing, that fake e-mail address can be used to spoof your account).

 

3. If you have your e-mail showing, when you reply to messages it goes to people who receive messages in inbox with your e-mail address. This gives them your e-mail address. Also, if they reply to a post from you received in their inbox, some e-mail clients will add your e-mail address to their address book, making you more susceptable to having viruses spoof your address and to you receiving virus e-mails.  And finally, if you respond to a posted message you received via e-mail without first deleting the original message, your e-mail address will be posted on the message board along with your response.  If the message came from a public group, even non-members will be able to view it.

 

4. Having your e-mail address exposed subjects you to spammers who go into groups and harvest e-mail addresses. We just recently banned someone who was spamming our members.

 

5. Commercial "spiders" can pick up your e-mail address and use it or sell it to other companies for purposes of spamming.

 

If you must have an e-mail address so people can contact you, hide your e-mail address and get a separate one for contact and list it in your profile under "about me" or somewhere else.  While you're at it, you might also want to make sure that you do not have your full name exposed in your MSN public profile.  There is no sense in making it easier for undesireables to locate you.

 

To Hide your e-mail address go to Member/Manager Tools in each group you belong to and click the link "Check Your E-mail Settings". When the page opens, there is a little box underneath your e-mail address next to "Allow other group members to see my e-mail address". Make sure that box is unchecked. Then click the Save Changes button at the bottom.  For more details,  follow this link to our tutorial on changing your e-mail settings.

 

This information provided courtesy of Community Feedback