Protect your email address

Posting your email address online is a risky thing to do. On some sites, you can control who sees it. Other sites, however, leave it open to the world.

You want to avoid the open sites whenever possible. Spammers have very sophisticated ways of collecting email addresses. You're practically inviting the spam into your inbox. It's like giving out your phone number at a telemarketing convention.

Sometimes, however, you need to share your email address. You might be trying to sell something online, for example. That's where today's Cool Site comes in handy.

It lets you hide your email address behind a shortened link. To see your email address, someone has to click the link. Then they have to answer a quick CAPTCHA. This foils the automated collection tools spammers use.

Note that this system won't protect you from scammers and creeps. Those are real people. So you'll still want to be careful where you post the link.

http://scr.im/