Recently, I’ve gotten some emails that show every recipient’s email address out there for anyone to misuse (including one consignment shop which published, in that manner, their complete consignor email list. So any other shop could use it. Ouch.)
While searching
……
for an easy way to tell these folks why not to do this I found a great resource… And this page answers a lot of “dumb” questions I myself have, too.
While this page was developed for use in schools, it has a lot of good answers to very good questions:
Windows computer and internet help in plain English.
Click the headline above. Or click here. (There’s a Macintosh version too, if you need that.)
The photo’s from chacha.com, “Ask Us Anything.” Ya wanna see dumb questions, THAT’s the place. Seriously.
Auntie Kate The Resale Expert 
Hi Kate, The folks who wanted the contacts grabbed them before our mall owner understood the email management hints you give here. As one on this highly valuable list of hundreds of local vendors, I am active in demanding to be removed from these unscrupulous users’ lists and my next step is to block their mail (as a matter of principle). I know where they got my email from! I tell them in my “please remove me” EMAIL that I know how to find them should I desire to be in contact in the future. We are colleagues after all.
Good point, Lynn, and it clarifies what I am saying: that there are things we all need to know more of. The situation I used to illustrate my point? Not yours! I don’t really feel such misuse is evidence of unscrupulousness, though, just lack of forethought.
I’m sure that if we all stopped and thought about it, we wouldn’t want to expose our fans to danger… and we wouldn’t want to hand our contact list over to strangers, either.