That's a good question. I'm not sure what is the answer to your question. I'll do some poking around and get back to you if I find an good answer. You should email the people at Lending Tree as they probably can answer it..

Mine is most obviously on and it don't make any difference either way because it's in the signature line..

Most people seem to have the feature turned off as far as I can tell..

I wouldn't send anybody an email anyway unless they emailed me first but it seems like most folks don't know about the feature or are scared to death of getting an email from someone..

Of course, on the other hand they may have a legitimate.

Fear because of the fact that some spammers do have some very sophisticated robots that can harvest email addresses from almost any place such as a message board and more..

It don't make any difference how secure Creditnet's lists mght be or how much care Creditnet might take with our email addresses, it's the people's fear of getting spammed that counts so fear wins out most every time..

I think it's a pretty groundless fear because as openly posted as my email address is I don't seem to get any huge increase in spam email than I did before I got back on the board..

Spam is pretty easy to control anyway. A simple hold down shift delete key while pressing delete key process blows the spam into the bit bucket every time..

And it's easy to set up spam filters in one's email program too...

Its very simple also to set up a free email account at yahoo or hotmail, and probably more. I do see alot of spam and attribute it to this board, as it mostly is debt consolidation stuff..

My regular email address includes my entire name, and given the small town I live in, the ISP @ address will give away my location as well. LOL - lordy my entire dirty laundry would be all over town and in the coffee shops within an hour if somebody found it!.

It really does make it easier if email is on though. I have contacts I have shared with people, but don't want to plaster their names all over here, for fear of burning bridges..

Anyways, if identity is your concern set up a free account, and use it for all your BB activities...

I post regularly on a board related to genealogy as well. The thing I like about this particular board is that your email is posted as an image, as opposed to a link. My understanding is it makes it a lot harder for spammers to harvest...

Your email is never posted on this board. Click on my name and do like you're going to email me, and you will see it..

If you buy things online, sign up for services online, just about anything - someone somewhere will sell your email address. Tons of emails and profiles got sold over the past couple of years as online retailers went out of business and sold their databases..

I don't like spam either, but even after it is made illegal, spammers are still going to spam, because they make a lot of money doing it. It's the American way, hehe..

Whatever...

I don't like spam any more than anybody else..

Businesses really hate if because getting rid of it takes up their time and resources. Worse yet so much of it deals with subject matter that is truly offensive to most decent folks and is very degrading to women as well as being distasteful to say the least..

So there is a lot to be said against it..

But there is also a lot to be said against those who deign.

To be our police and try to tell us what we can and cannot.

Receive in our emails..

It is commonly known that their spam filters often get out of hand and deny us emails even from religious organizatons, governmental agencies and other mail that we might rightfully want to receive..

Their policing efforts often do as much or more harm than they do good..

I for one would like to have the priviledge of deciding what I do or do not want to receive or see...

I like my spam filter. You always have the option of not using it...

I get more SPAM than I ever did before!!!.

AOL HAS "REPORT AND BLOCK SPAM".

For every one I report, I get like 4 or 5 more to replace it!!!..

Correct me if I'm wrong, Breeze but it seems to me that what you are talking about is a spam filter that you have installed on your computer and what I am talking about is a spam filter installed by your ISP over which you have no control and forced upon you whether you like it or not..

I rather applaud the approach of one installing one's own spam filters and choosing that which they will or will not see and/or allow to be seen by other members of their family such as children. I do that myself..

What I abhor is the spam filters that are forced upon me by others and over which I have no control...

I SIGNED UP FOR>.

The FrequentFlier Crier.

BUT AOL AND YAHOO AND OTHERS TREAT IT AS SPAM!!! SO I HAVE GOT IT LIKE ONLY TWICE IN 3 MONTHS...IT IS A WEEKLY E-MAIL NEWSLETTER ON WEDNESDAYS....

Since they send like 10,000 or 100,000 or whatever they send...AOL ASSUMES IT IS SPAM!!!..

Mac OS X Mail's spam filter gets points for objectivity. They flag emails coming from Apple themselves :).

Oh, and my email is now turned on, btw. I originally had my work email on file, which probably wasn't too bright..

Wajaba..