[AoshiShinomori]

I take the safest route of all... I dont even keep chat software! I just post on the forum and PM when necessary. No e-mail addresses, no chat, no general communication of any type whatsoever...

and if I might add to the original notion of this thread, not only should you not give out e-mail, you should also verify the credentials of those you are communicating with to make sure that they aren't weirdos in any way. Google their userId's, google some of their posts to check if they are on any other forum, profile what they write to see if the grammar and sentence construction is consistent across posts or if they're ripping off from other places, profile any alternate user Id's you might find of theirs on other forums and even after you've done all that, remember that you can never know for sure... *Oh well you've guessed it, I'm paranoid...*