Reminder about Internet safety -- email addresses, photos and personal information!

[tbs727]

Wow, thanks for this very interesting information.

[Janie63]

Originally Posted by lovemylifex3 Thank you so much for posting this! I never knew that about posting your email address like that!

Thanks for the reminder. That's always good to remember.

[pennywatcher]

I have a couple things to add.

If you do have to post your email address, I would suggest encoding it even more than "boardmember at yahoo dot com". Any time you have a standard way of presenting information, it's easy to write a program to search for it. It's trivial for an automated address hunter to pick up addresses by searching for the string "at yahoo dot com", "at hotmail dot com", "at gmail dot com", etc. You can confuse the address hunter a little more by saying something like "Please send it to my yahoo.com account. The user name is boardmember." or even "Send it to boardXmember at yahoo dot com. Remove the X from the username."

If you feel the need to post your email address, go back and edit it out of your post once you've gotten what you need. Some of the search engines may already have the information cached, but at least if you delete it, it will eventually drop out of their cache.

If you have done any trading, please remember that there are now people out there that have your physical address. I think it's ill-advised to publicly state on the board when you are going on vacation and for how long. Like FantasyIsland said, even if you haven't given anyone your actual address, sometimes you've let enough information slip that they could figure it out.

[Q_ponQ]

Here is another way

Board
member
AT
yahoo
dot
com

[MrsPinecone]

Bump

[Timedess]

Thanks for bumping this, MrsP. it is always good to have a fresh reminder to be careful. I've met many wonderful people through the internet, but there are weirdoes and even more dangerous than that out there as well. :)

[queenofthehivemomof5]

Personaly guys, I don't think there is a reason to post your email address on HCW. If you need someone to send you something, PM them. If you are requesting for anyone to send you something ask them to PM you.

Originally Posted by MrsPinecone We have gained a large number of new members, so it is time for a reminder about Internet safety and security. I have noticed a trend toward members posting their email addresses in various threads. In addition to being a possible safety issue, various data miners can capture your email address and you can become the recipient of tons of unwanted SPAM!! IF you decide to post you email in a public forum, the best way to do it is to write it out: boardmember at yahoo dot com. That way, a link will not automatically be generated and you won't be getting Internet "lunchmeat". Other than that, just be careful what you say. This board and others like it are a public forum. You need to consider how much information you are willing to have out there. Do you want people to know your kids' names? The place you work? Other personal details? If not, then be careful what you post. Have a safe and happy day!

Oh Boy good point. I think I better try to edit one of my posts now :(

[misseve]

wish i read this i get spam all the time yuk

[meeakit]

WISE WISE WORDS! PMING IS THE WAY!