When joining my yahoo group, members see an increase in spam mail to their e-mails. Can this be stopped? How?

Question

I created a yahoo group - and members are now complaining of an increase of spam emails arriving in their mailboxes -

Can this be avoided? And if so - how?

Answer 1

Evidently you must have a spammer or two within your group's membership.  When a member replies to a group message via email, that member's full email address is visible.  That's one way spammers harvest email addresses.  I recently joined a large active group and immediately was loaded down with spam. I quickly unsubscribed.  I notified the owner of this fact.  

Make sure you have made your group Restricted (you must approve all memberships), Moderated (you approve all messages before they are posted to group site), Hide your Membership list, and just hope the spammer moves on to other groups.  (They don't usually hang around too long).

Answer 2

you really cant avoid this. any time you join any group, you open yourself up for a spammer. not all lurkers are spammers, so removing lurkers from membership may end up deleting a real member. it also may have nothing to do with your group- many members belong to multiple groups.