ColdFusion MX doet echt wel rare dingen met scopes:
In this release, within a component
<cfset x = 1>puts x in the Variables scope local to the component and<cfset variables.x = 1>puts x in the Variables scope of the calling page.
Once this bug is fixed, both<cfset x = 1>and<cfset variables.x = 1>will do exactly the same thing and put x in the Variables scope local to the component.
Until this bug is fixed, avoid using<cfset variables.x = 1>, as this would conflict with<cfset x = n>in the calling page.