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Just received this email (which I consider as spam):

FW: Arabic Language Proposal on the StackExchange network

Date: Sat, 4 Oct 2014 23:31:33 -0400
Subject: Arabic Language Proposal on the StackExchange network
From: w**********d@gmail.com
To: a*********1@hotmail.com

وأخيرا، دخلت الاقتراح مرحلتها الثانية، وها هي الرابطة:

http://area51.stackexchange.com/proposals/62022/arabic-language?referrer=L2p8uioxGYf30j48QTDmGA2

اتبع الرابط إلى صفحة الاقتراح، ثم اضغط على زر "Commit" اﻷخضر، شكرا

While it may be a coincidence that I as a Stack Exchange user receive this spam, I still wonder whether someone managed to misuse Stack Exchange for spamming.

So my question is:

Is the above spam email an indicator that someone might use a possible security vulnerability in Stack Exchange to spam other users?

(Or it this actually a feature I've never discovered until now?)

Update 1

I've just followed the link with the "referrer=L2p8uioxGYf30j48QTDmGA2" which leads to this user. He/she claims:

I currently act as a temporary moderator for Islam Stackexchange.

I've once registered for this site "islam.stackexchange.com". As this posting states, a moderator can access my email address.

I might be wrong, but my wild guess here is that a moderator is spamming users. Could this be the case?

Update 2

To the closing-voters: If my guess is true and some moderator is involved, then it seems to me this is not releated to the possible duplicate article.

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    Can still your email in the first quote. By the way, were you signed up for the Definition phase? – user271799 Oct 5 '14 at 6:22
  • @Omen I think I should leave the addresses of the spammer visible since it might help track down the source of the "issue". I have not committed to the proposal. – Uwe Keim Oct 5 '14 at 6:23
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    Fair enough - it does seem very bizarre, as if it were an official email from SE, it should be from the Area 51 team – user271799 Oct 5 '14 at 6:25
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    This did not come from Stack Exchange, and not from any official "share this" feature they have. – Shadow Wizard is Vaccinating Oct 5 '14 at 6:25
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    @UweKeim no, you did not obscure anything, if you have then you forgot to edit. – Shadow Wizard is Vaccinating Oct 5 '14 at 6:28
  • @ShadowWizard I've obscured my email address to "***.****@gmail.com". I've you think it is worth obscuring all addresses, feel free to go ahead. – Uwe Keim Oct 5 '14 at 6:29
  • @UweKeim refresh your browser, you have some weird cache. I see your email, starting with "w" and ending with "d". – Shadow Wizard is Vaccinating Oct 5 '14 at 6:30
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    the email could have been sent as a BCC – user271799 Oct 5 '14 at 6:34
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    Related: meta.stackexchange.com/questions/207872/… – jonsca Oct 5 '14 at 8:50
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    This is really something you should report privately to the Stack Exchange team. You're no better than them if you're going around publishing email addresses. – animuson♦ Oct 5 '14 at 14:27
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    Use the standard contact us form (linked in the footer) or just shoot an email to team@stackexchange.com – animuson♦ Oct 5 '14 at 14:31
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    Or it this actually a feature I've never discovered until now? - As you said that user is a moderator on Islam, he might have read your email id (yes, moderators can view email id but they shouldn't see unless required). So he might have picked up few email ids requesting to support Arabic SO as he can get most of the arab speaking users from Islam.SE but in a way this is kinda wrong, but can't say spamming. He wants to support a site so he mailed random people but yes, can't view ids for mailing users personally. – Mr. Alien Oct 5 '14 at 15:11
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    @Mr.Alien Using PII for purposes other than moderation of the site is a violation of the moderator agreement and the SE privacy policy. It's not just "kinda wrong", it is explicitly forbidden for moderators to do this. (I don't know if PII was used or the address was public in this specific case) – Mad Scientist Oct 5 '14 at 15:29
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    Note, I've edited the header out of the post, as it contains emails. We're aware of it, and have acted. – Tim Post Oct 5 '14 at 15:29
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    I was going to ask this question myself: I got one too. – TRiG Oct 6 '14 at 16:01
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We've received reports of this, and we've contacted the folks involved. It's nothing nefarious, just some very enthused users that want to see a site go forward, but going about promoting it in the wrong ways.

I've contacted them privately, we'll take it from here.

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    Thanks a lot for your kind and fast help. – Uwe Keim Oct 5 '14 at 15:34
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It seems like it is either sent in error, or indeed spam, especially as you were not involved in the Definition phase.

Any notifications about a site proceeding to commitment phase should come from the Area 51 team.

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