list email address security

[curry]

>  > Hi,
>  > Just my $0.02 worth. I have been getting the same Nigerian scammer
>  > mails ;-)
>
>So do I, but on one of my other e-mail addresses, not this one.
>
>I reckon that's worth $0.03.

Are there any doubts about the risk, or any ambiguity in the current 
situation? I think the only helpful and logical way to consider the 
problem is to consider all (of the few) simple factors involved:

-most addresses are harvested from web pages
-the archive index and message headings *are* protected
-the security problem happens *only* when someone replies to your 
message *and* your address is inserted by them or their software, or 
when an address is included in the sig line
-someone has to run a bot to successfully scan that section of the internet
-the address has to be sold and used

Considering these factors, certainly, not everyone may have been 
affected. For those who believe they probably haven't, that would 
seem to me a good reason to hope for a correction to the problem so 
that it won't happen in the future, rather than a reason not to worry 
about it.

I don't think there are any great unknowns about address harvesting. 
It's pretty simple, predictable, and well-understood. I'm personally 
hoping that my current address here (I switched a while ago) hasn't 
been scanned yet, or not too many times, and could be removed before 
that happens.

I don't see that as negative or non-philosophical at all. It's simply 
realistic and in fact, quite positive--a simple thing we can do to 
frustrate the spammers and have less spam to deal with ourselves, 
therefore more time for other things!

I frankly am hoping and expecting that something will be done soon, 
and there are several ways of doing it, some I would expect are not 
all that difficult. I've been staying mum about the matter for the 
last few days, but since the topic came up again and seemed not 
focused on the above considerations, I just wanted to make sure that 
people realize what to look at in the situation.

Curry