Reducing Spam Associated with Posting to Newsgroups

Due to a recent increase in spam sent to posters in newsgroups, Microsoft advises that newsgroup participants should consider avoiding posting to newsgroups using their real email address. Microsoft is also committed to continuing to address the issue of spam from a technological perspective.

To help avoid receiving unwanted messages (spam) in your regular e-mail account, you may not want to include your regular e-mail address when you post a question or reply to a post in a discussion group. Instead you may want to do one of the following:

* Use a modified e-mail address: Use a different version of your e-mail address that others will understand, but that spam tools can't automatically pick up. For example, if your actual e-mail address is "emailname@account.com", consider using a modified e-mail address such as: "emailnameaccount.com.invalid", emailname@REMOVE_CAPS_AND_INVALIDaccount.com.invalid, or emailname@account.com.NO_SPAM. In this case, the spam tools will send mail to an invalid e-mail address, and others will know to exclude the "(removethis)" when they send you e-mail. When you post a question or reply to a discussion group, just enter your modified e-mail address in the appropriate box.

* Use a secondary e-mail account: Set up or use an e-mail account, such as a Hotmail account, that is separate from your primary account for posting to discussion groups. When you post a question or reply to a discussion group, use your Hotmail account as your e-mail address.

If you have feedback or questions about this, please post a reply in the newsgroup, or contact us at http://register.microsoft.com/contac...in=communities

Thanks!
Microsoft Communities Team