Clueless webmasters ...

... who post other people's email addresses on their sites.

[buckworks]

I have an email address that I use in limited situations related to one site. I have never, ever posted that address anywhere. Recently it has been bombarded with spam to the point that it's pretty much ruined for business use.

Tonight I figured out where the spam was coming from. Someone posted a link to that site along with some nice comments, which I would ordinarily be grateful for. Trouble is, they also posted my email address as the contact person ... without my permission and WITHOUT DOING ANYTHING TO PROTECT IT FROM SPAM HARVESTERS.

Auuuuuuuuuuuuughhhhhh!

[drbrain]

I have my email address scattered far and wide across the internet, and I have hardly any problems with spam. Sounds like you need a better filter.

Before my host turned on all of the pedantic email validity rules, spam was manageable with a simple bayesian filter. Now I get so little spam that I almost don't need the filter, 1 or 2 spams a day.

[digitalv]

Start using Mozilla Thunderbird instead of Outlook, and no more spammy.

[karmov]

I second digitalv's idea. I used to check my e-mail with Unix based mail systems, then when the spam got to be too much to handle, I started looking around to see what my co-workers were using. Mozilla/Thunderbird seemed to be the best one for the spam filter, I tried it and I've been very very pleased with the results.

[figment88]

The people who post others' email addresses are doing nothing wrong. It is the people sending SPAM.

[kwngian]

I use email alias for the email addresses posted on my sites.

E.g.
[e-mail] => [e-mail]

So the original email is protected.

[goodroi]

buckworks,

Many people do this for revenge. In your case it is appears that the person is just stupid. But if someone upsets you, you can easily paste their email address all over the Internet. I don't care how good your spam filter is, some of the spam will get through and if you paste that email address enough places well then...