I almost forgot.
Wiseningup - you can block addresses with most email accounts. I know Yahoo! does it. I believe most others do as well. Look at their options. You should be able to make a list of addresses that you don't want to see email from.
I have two email addresses. One for family and friends and one for everyone else just in case. I am one my third "one for everyone else" because I got spammed so much. I set it up with yahoo.com. I suggest that for anyone.
The account that I never give out except to friends still gets a little spam but only a couple a month.
When the lady contacted one of the principals he gave her my home phone number! They know I do not accept sales calls at home, pto related or not. I nipped it real quick and let her know I would not be interested. Since I am a PTO mom of three area schools, I got contacted three times by her by e-mail. I politely told the lady that the e-mail boxes are for parents, teachers and anyone within the school district to use and not for solicitations. I use a separate e-mail address for those just so I can avoid spam. Now when I see her name or company, I hit "Delete"!
I handle spam one of two ways. Usually I ignore it by just deleting it. I never go to their site. The other way I do it is if it is from an actual person. I send them an email back asking where they got my email address and ask them if they realize that unsolicited trash is against the law. I keep doing this until I get a response, usually an apology and then I never hear from them again.
The email was from the same (how do I say this politely?) dopes who spammed the forum. They apparently went into threads and clicked on profiles and grabbed email addresses of folks who've left their email addresses open to public viewing. It's happened before -- and I always try to politely guide folks to more effective marketing options -- but this has been the worst effort we've seen. I hope everyone will reward these folks by ignoring their emails completley and not even clicking to their Web site.
I don't know if this is related or not, but I have recently received an e-mail that was to all PTO today members. I was wondering how someone could get all the e-mail addresses from here and don't think that Tim would provide them.
My question, is during this little spam thing, was information like e-mail addresses possibly collected?