Spam control question

[willt]

In the FAQ's about Spam this line of text appears.

Use [email protected] as your reply Email whenever you don't know who will be seeing your address.

I don't understand what is or how to use the "invalid.email@sonic,net" reply. Can anyone explain this please?

Thank you and regards,

Willt

[virtualmike]

Use it to configure your email program or other client software that requires an email address. Where you'd normally type "[email protected]" type the string above.

This is most commonly done with Usenet, where people routinely munge their email addresses so that spambots cannot harvest them.

[willt]

Okay,

Thank you for your reply to my question.

If I configured my email program that way would everyone I send an email to see the [email protected] as the sender? I wouldn't want that because most people I send email to would not understand and simply delete the mail thinking it was spam.

[virtualmike]

Yes, that's exactly what would happen. I wouldn't recommend it in your email program; however, if there's another place where you are expected to provide an email address but don't want to reveal yours (at least not such that a 'bot could harvest it), the bogus address is a good one to use.

[willt]

I see,

Thank you.