"the e-mails came from several addresses, none of which were registered as members at Mudcat."

Like it's hard to created a bogus email addy to register at mudcat with...

More than a few MBs I frequent require a 'provider' email addy to register...   Not hotmail... not Gmail... only the 'home' email addy you'd get from your internet provider...   And they have few if any problems with squabbles, spammers, or flames...

Mind you, their web forum doesn't crash once-a-day, every day either...

All these issues are such non-issues... or should be....