Thanks for the link; I'll check it out later. How are the free e-journals progressing? Are the editorial standards as vigorous as for the top-flight print journals? Springer also offers a sort of "best of..." service, in my case I chose Crop Science, articles garnered from an array of their journals. Unfortunately, the notification is monthly and fewer than a dozen articles are posted to me with each email. I had better response from BioMedNet and other similar sites. At one point I received email notifications of a half dozen journals from Springer and could access abstracts. Too often abstracts were not available so I could only access the first line or two of the papers at best. Not very useful or enlightening.

I just received one from Stonebridge Life Ins. Co. regarding "Epsilon's breach" in security. However, the email I received asks for no reply. Seems just to be a notification of the Epsilon problem. It reads as follows: "Epsilon Email Issue We were recently informed by Epsilon, a marketing vendor used by Stonebridge Life Insurance Company and its affiliates to send emails, that an unauthorized third party gained access to email files of a number of Epsilon�fs clients, including our email lists. For your security, you are receiving this notice from us because Stonebridge Life Insurance Company or its affiliates has sent you information via email in the past using Epsilon as our vendor. What information was accessed? Your email address and first name has been accessed. No other personal information regarding you was accessed. How does this impact you? In all likelihood, this will not impact you. However, we recommend that you continue to be cautious of unwanted emails, emails that contain links with potential viruses or emails prompting you to provide personal or financial information. We urge you to be cautious when opening links or attachments from unknown third parties. What is Epsilon doing about this? Epsilon has notified us that they have identified the cause of the breach and have taken the necessary steps to prevent additional data access. Epsilon has reported this incident to the appropriate authorities for investigation. We sincerely regret any concern or inconvenience this may have caused you. Your privacy and the security of your information is a top priority for us. Sincerely, Stonebridge Life Insurance Company and its Affiliates 2700 West Plano Parkway �� Plano, Texas 75075-8200" The above email from Stonebridge made it past my McAfee and personal IP spam filters. I assume it was able to do so as there was no real phishing contained therein? I really didn't think much about opening the email since I receive both personal and business emails through my email address. I think I have been lulled into a false sense of security, relying on McAfee and my IP spam filter to catch spam. Our IP spam filter is so diligent/effective that I have to review the daily reports with a fine tooth comb as emails that I do want to receive have gotten caught up in the IP spam filter. That said, I am fairly certain that I haven't communicated with Stonebridge Life Insurance for any reason, either through the business or personally. Thanks so much for posting this information!

Yes, it's spam and it's called spoofing as mentioned. While it's not technically "dangerous" to open them, you could be asking for more spam by opening it. Often they'll put in a little code to tell if you've opened it and that verifies the email address. A verified email address is worth much more than an unverified one in the spamming world. Not unlike a known telephone number is worth more to a telemarketer. When you get this stuff, delete it, or pay the price. OJ, sometimes people will do the right thing and use BCC when they send mail to multiple people. They usually put their own address in the "To" field and "BCC" the others so addresses will be hidden. It's the right thing to do. Now that doesn't mean that it's *not* spam though! :) People who send to everyone in their address book and not BCC, and also the people who just forward hoaxes and other junk should have their computers confiscated.

Sorry, I posted this in the wrong forum.