Email addresses - a new standard

So what's with some people suddenly starting to be "super cool" or "super cautious" by writing their email addresses as name (at) domainname (dot) com . . (Good grief!!) - Ok, perhaps it does mitigate the obvious spider-ing through websites by malicious (are they any other type) spammers but, . . on business cards!

Yes, it's even beginning to crop up on business cards (yikes!).

What's worse are those uber geeks who are including web syntax to make some kind of point, such as those angle brackets to envelope their names . . (Good grief!)

It's just a name/address, and we already have a standard. It's called "simple English."

Next time I address a letter through the regular mail, perhaps I'll write . .

{capital}M {small}r {period}Joe Schmo[comma}

I wonder if it'll get through the poor postal service or more likely get shredded by the mail man.

Please don't try to be too cute.

Here's where the the paranoi stems from . . an Oxford University professor, Jonathan Zittrain, and a Purdue University assistant professor, Laura Frieder, recently studied spamming schemes and reached a suprising conclusion: they work. Spammers often make a 5 to 6 percent return in just days. The suckers who buy the stock - and some inevitably do - lose 7 percent of their investment.

There is, of course, a simple, foolproof way to protect yourself. Delete the spam. Do not buy the stock. But for those who still don’t understand or simply can’t resist, even stronger warnings are on the way. Most of the companies promoted in spam (including Voxbox) are traded on the Pink Sheets, a New York-based electronic exchange that doesn’t require companies to file financial reports with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The Pink Sheets chief executive, Cromwell Coulson, said the exchange will create a new tier of companies in March 2007 that do file disclosures. Firms that do not will be flagged with a skull and crossbones if they are promoted in spam, he said. In the meantime, Mr. Coulson offered some simple, age-old financial wisdom: "A free stock tip is worth what you paid for it."