Spambots are malicious programmes that scan web pages for email addresses, often using subtle and complex algorithms in their relentless search. These malicious programs first collect addresses they find on a page, and then follow each hyperlink they find on that page to yet a new page and repeat the process. Since these programs are very fast, they are able to search, however randomly, many webpages in a very short time.
The email addresses these programs harvest so diligently may be sold many times over, or the spambot program itself may simply generate SPAM to the harvested addresses and send it out automatically.

Moreover, it is entirely possible that a posting of an E-mail address in the Forums may be a subtle attempt at phishing that could seriously harm our Members or result in unwanted invasions of their privacy.

We warn our Members that publicly posting your Email address anywhere on the Web should be avoided, and for these reasons TV does not allow publishing them in the Forums for whatever reason. As a safer alternative, we recommend the use of TV's Personal Message system for any direct communication between Members.

Zarathustra
Global Moderator

This post has been edited by Zarathustra: Jan 13 2008, 12:05 PM