OK, this is the method I use to avoid spam from Usenet.

The programs trawling Usenet look for triggers that note the instance of an
email address, and as you know, email addresses follow a basic pattern -
something like;


To trick these programs, we once added a space before and after the @
symbol. Of course, spam harvesters are not smarter than us - but they are
certainly doggedly determined to turn a buck, so they defeated this by
looking for any string of characters preceding and following the @ symbol.

Fine - we will use the phonetic 'at' instead.

So if your email address is


Then change it to read

'john at someisp dot com dot au'

Or even

john at someisp dot com dot au

The basic idea is to make the address legible to a rational human being, but
useless to a bot.

To change the newsgroup email details in Outlook Express. Go to..

Tools, then accounts.

Click the news tab, then highlight the service you use to access Usenet
(newsgroups). It is most likely the same as your isp.

Click 'properties', then under 'user information' you will find the 'email'
box. The address placed here is the one that everyone will see, humans and
bots included. Place your [john at someisp dot com dot au] style
address here, then click 'apply'

Note however, that nobody from Usenet will be able to personally reply to
you by simply clicking on a message of yours. You can alleviate this by
putting a small note at the bottom of your posts (Fix return address before
replying) or something like that. You could even set that note up as a
signature.

Of course, this information is most likely well out of date by now, and some
wily teenager may well have written a program that circumvents all the
tricks I have suggested. But hell, give it a go anyway - It cant hurt.

Best, Matthew.


"paxwax1" wrote in message
...
I'm getting so much 'bad' mail of late and the only thing I can put it
down
to is that my email goes out to newsgroups; no-one else.

It would be great to know of ways around this.