> you could set your list so that you have to approve all new subscriptions I use that setting on all of my lists. I recently had one subscription attempt that was obviously a faked/spoofed/whatever address - it's been talked about here on this list recently when someone else queried the same address trying to sub to one of their lists. (Your list's tools page > Privacy options (Ban list) > What steps are required for subscription = Require approval) As soon as I approve a subscription, I put the new member on moderation. That's usually the end of it, as my lists tend to be very quiet and no-one posts. But once a new member who is moderated has posted once or twice (once is usually enough to show me that it's a genuine person with genealogy intentions) I remove the moderation. (Membership Management) If you're going to have some (or all) members on moderation, you want to be getting notifications of pending messages immediately rather than just the once-a-day reminder. I think there's been a little confusion over this in past messages in this thread, so I mention it for clarification. (General Options > Should the list administrator and list admin assistants get immediate notice of new moderation requests, as well as daily notices about collected ones? = Yes) Hope this helps. :-) Wendy