@ irmtfan - thanks for that. I'll give that a go.

edited to add the message below.

Follow up for anyone interested enough.

I followed irmtfan's advice and found this user's nickname and a (munged) email on another site.

Also, reading between the lines, Will_H has indirectly and unintentionally helped, in that now I assume the answer to the question is, simply, "No".

Best,

Noel

Hi folks, I'm a newbie. Begging patience and help.

I have received a query from a registered user who claims that they have received a (millions of dollars!) spam to the nickname that they have used only on my site.

I notice that they have hidden their email in their profile (checking back through sql files they have "always" been hidden).

Is it possible that spambots/spiders can scan the Registered Users email-addresses?

If so is there anything I can do about it?

Thanks for any advice/info.

Noel

edited for typos