E-mail address masquerading for archived mail messages

[RIPE NCC WebMaster <]

Dear Colleagues,

[Apologies for duplicate mails]

Beginning today, 16 August, the RIPE NCC will implement "e-mail address 
masquerading" for messages displayed on the web site in the RIPE and the 
RIPE NCC mailing list archives. E-mail masquerading makes it more difficult 
for spammers to harvest e-mail addresses from the mailing list archives.

When masquerading is applied, the e-mail address of the sender will be 
hidden in the mail archived messages. Those reading archived mail will see 
a return e-mail address that appears as "somebody@localhost". When 
clicking on this e-mail address, the address of the original sender will be 
loaded in your mail program, enabling you to send a message to the author.

The RIPE NCC has chosen to implement this security measure as there have 
been various complaints from members of the RIPE community that e-mail 
addresses were being abused by spammers for Unsolicited Bulk E-mail (UBE).

By implementing this security measure we anticipate there will be a sharp 
reduction to address harvesting of archived e-mail addresses.

We will be checking for harvesters who manage to overcome this measure and 
will take further steps if necessary.

E-mail masquerading will be applied to all mailing lists found in the 
following directories:

http://www.ripe.net/ripencc/mail-archives/
http://www.ripe.net/ripe/mail-archives/

We appreciate your understanding on this matter.

Regards

Jeroen Bet
RIPE NCC WEBMASTER
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