Antonetta Stanzione wrote:
>
> I also have received these messages I wondered where they were getting
> my address from. They should spend more time expanding their minds by
> collecting and learning about shells. That would make them nicer
> people.

There are simple programs that "harvest" email addresses from newsgroups
and lists, handy in getting addresses within a special interest.

Normally, I munge my email address to prevent this, but on Conch-L and
most other lists (which are controlled through subscription, as opposed
to newsgroups which are open to all) your email address must match the
address with which you subscribed, or the message will bounce.

Anyone who subscribes to this list can very easily harvest the list and
use the harvested addresses to spam. There's really nothing you can do
about it.

m