Bob,

?> They don't appear in the joined when I sort by date joined.? Not at
?> all.
?> Yes, the groups.io footer does appear in their emails I have gotten.

And the other half of the question: did their message appear in your
group's Messages list?

Are there entries in your group's Activity log corresponding to the date
and time their spam messages were posted?

Is it possible that their message came to you via a different group than
the one you're looking in? Check to be sure that the To: field of the
message exactly matches the posting address of your group.

?> Very odd they won't turn up anywhere in admin tools, ...

So odd that I consider it impossible. Hence the search for a plausible
explanation.

?> no display name to search,

That doesn't matter. I wonder why you keep bringing it up?

Where is it that you are not seeing a Display Name? Are you talking
about either the Inbox or an opened message in your email interface?
That could be the source of the confusion.

Have they confused matters by putting what looks like an email address
in their Display Name? That could obfuscate their actual email address.

But it should stand out like a sore thumb in your group's Members list,
an email address in the Display Name column.

Plus, it wouldn't matter. Putting even part of the text you have into
the Search box in your group's Members list would find that text in
either the Display Name or the Email column.

?> their email is not searchable

The only way you might not find them by searching the Members list or
the Activity log is if you have a typo in the search text you entered.

?> (I enclosed it wrongly but only to show if it had anything odd about
?> it that could throw the software off).

There was not (I'm the moderator who redacted it).

How did you copy the address? Copy / Paste the From field of a received
message? Or did you copy it by hand? There is a possibility that the
address contains characters that look like different characters, leading
to an inability to match it.

?> But the team should know there are emails that can completely hide
?> from the admin, yet will allow themselves to be deleted by bulk
?> delete.

I don't believe such hiding is possible. To be a member of the group the
person's email address must appear in the Members list.

What Bruce asks is a possibility - posting by a non-member. But such
posts are always held for moderation and I assume you would have not
approved spam messages.

Plus, what leads you to believe that bulk delete deleted them if you
were not able to find them in the first place?

Apologies for the long string of questions, but I'm trying to find the
evidence that will tell us what happened. Usually that search begins and
ends with the Groups' activity log - a great tool for revealing message
posting activity and Memberships joining and leaving.

Shal


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