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How should I munge my email address?

Posting on usenet opens up your reply-to and from email address open to email harvesters, which gets your email address distributed on email lists ready to spam. One simple way to avoid being spammed is to give a false or munged email address. Normally a munged (or spam-blocked) email address is nothing more than a real email address plus a few additions that need to be removed first. Most typical is the insertion of "nospam" somewhere in the email address.

Before answering the question of how to munge an email address properly, should we munge in the first place? Munging email addresses does nothing to reduce the level of spam - its the equivalent to sticking your head in the sand. If your intention is to ignore the spam problem, and you are willing to accept the hassle it creates for both you and any third-parties you may wish to receive email from, then munging is for you - just make sure you do it properly and you don't pass the spam problem on to others.

Munging your email address

However you decide to munge your email address, make absolutely sure that you never munge the domain name to something that belongs to someone else. If a domain name you use belongs to someone else, make sure you have their full consent before using it. There are helpful guidelines for responsible address munging in the Address Munging FAQ.

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