spammed from the avsim mail list...

[shermank 166]

I received the following email...my concern is that my email address was picked up by someone outside our avsim world...Dear %Mr.,I found your address at %http://www.avsim.com/cgi-bin/database/db.cgi?db=classifieds&. This would indicate you are interested in aviation. As The London Morning Paper is planning a new publication, we would like to know if you would like to receive this email based newsletter every 14 days.The topic will be headlines with links to articles and information from the aviation industry. We also plan extensive flight simulation news as well.Your opinion will be formative in the planning and execution of this newsletter. If you have an informative website that might be included then please let me know. Also any other details you feel might be pertinent.I appreciate your time.James Beam van EttenExecutive EditorThe London Morning paperLondon, United Kingdomwww.london-morning-paper.co.uk James van EttenExecutive EditorThe London Morning Paper+44 (0) 207 - 603 - 5340World's first email based daily newspaperwww.london-morning-paper.co.uk

[Francois_Dumas 10]

This is not based on the AVSIM mail list. It is done by an internet crawler robot or whatever it is called. It is a program that searches the internet for certain words (this one probably used aviation... or might have even used avsim.... and found your address and many others.As an illustration, I have about 9 different email addresses with a number of ISP's. I got the email on all of those that are linked with aviation... not necessarily AVSIM. I have a site called fssupport.com for instance, with associated email addresses... and received the same email there too.Don't worry, your data are perfectly safe with AVSIM. Unfortunately that cannot be said of the internet so you will always run the risk of ebing spammed by people like these :-( :-outta Francois :-wave________________________Francois A. "Navman" DumasAssociate Editor &Forums AdministratorAVSIM Online!email: fdumas@avsim.com________________________

[Guest]

Sherman, what Francois told you is correct and good info to know anytime you have your email address somewhere on the internet. It is one of the downfalls of the internet with all the spam scanners out there. The way most large websites handle this is by never having an email exposed on the website. By exposed, that means not having any webpages that have email addresses embedded in the html code.Now back to more specifically AVSIM, as far as I know, we don't have a mailing list per se. The closest thing to this would be the list of accounts we have for forum users. All of those have email addresses. However, the way the forum handles the addresses, they are called by scripts and never actually embedded in the html code. This generally keeps them out of reach of the spam scanners that routinely scan our website. While nothing is 100% secure on the internet, you can rest assured that as long as you don't actually type your address in your post, it won't get scanned.So back to the url that was pointed out in the spam you received. I looked into that url and it is good you pointed it out. That appears to point back to our old classified pages which we don't use anymore. I searched and found 2 entries from you dated back in Mar 2001. And unfortunately, the way that database script works, it actually embeds the email addresses in the code and so it is accessible. Our new classified section that we opened in the forums called the "Swap Shop" is where any new classified ads should go. That will keep everyone's address safe. I will look into getting those old pages removed as soon as possible.

[Guest]

It's not just the old classified pages Scott. The spam I was sent claimed that it got my email address from responding to a Bears pics article. On the response page you are required to enter your email address.http://www.avsim.com/cgi-bin/talkback.cgiRegards,Brian