Lately I have been seeing a lot of members posting their home e-mail addresses, phone numbers and names when replying to for sale or wanted ads on the site.

Please, in the interest of your own security, don't put your home phone numbers, or e-mail addresses out in the open, use the Private Message feature to trade private addresses and phone numbers.

While we can trust many of our members not to use this information against us, we cannot control people who may be searching our site looking for things of this nature for whatever their purpose might be.

With the recent advent of the National Do Not Call list, telemarketers, direct marketers and scammers will be forced to change their tactics on how to get around the new law.

I have personally received in the mail, 3 direct marketing companies trying to "hawk" their wares to me. These have all been from people I have never heard of before, trying to sell me everything from business forms to pens for the Classic Z Car Club.

These all came to my home address, with my name on the envelope and the pens even had my street address and home phone number printed on them. How they got this information by scanning this site, or how they seemed to come to the conclusion that this was my club is beyond me. But, this should be a lesson to all of you that everything, and anything you put out in the public view is subject to more than any of us really con comprehend.

So, please, in your best interest, use the Private Message function any time you wish to contact a member with your personal information. If you wish to be first in line for a part or a car that is offered, reply to the thread with a message that tells the person they have a Private Message waiting for them.

Mike has done all that he can to keep things as secure for all of us, so please, use this feature to prevent any of us becoming the victims of the people we all hear about on the news and in the media. We cannot guarantee your privacy or security if you put your private numbers and addresses out there for the general public to see.

Also keep in mind that email addresses that are displayed in public forums can be captured by others and used for spam email. We don't abuse email addresses by selling or giving out your information. But, any email that is displayed in a public forum can be captured and used for sending you spam by other people browsing our site.

By keeping your email out of plain site (hidden behind the Private Messaging system), you can avoid this issue. Our system is set up with two methods of contact...

1) A private messaging system -- otherwise known as PM's. If you send a user a PM, our server will put that message in their mailbox (here on the site). They will then be notified (again, by our server) of the message through email. Because our computer operates on a database, it can automatically send email to the user based on the registration information. The email address is never displayed to any user directly.

2) A direct email system. Our computer will allow you to send email directly to a user (if that user has this option enabled). However, rather than displaying the email address directly to you, it will ask you to fill in an email form. This form contains a subject line and text body. After the form is completed, you click SEND and the message is delivered. Our server then 'relays' that message directly w/out ever showing the sender your email address.

All forum messages should have icons at the bottom of each message (or below the users name). If you wish to send a PM or Email to a user in the forums... just click one of these icons. Just a few tips for you.

-- Mike