How Spammers Find Email Addresses
Ever wondered how spammers found your email address, well there are lots of ways for them to find you. It is quite hard to keep your email address out of the hands of spammers, and the more you use it, the more likely spammers will find it.- Every time you give your email address out, when your buy something online, or fill in a registration card for something you've bought you are risking your address. Some of the companies you deal with will sell your details on to spammers to maximise their profits from you. And it's not just small companies that do this. Whenever someone wants your address, ask yourself, do they need it, is there any benefit to me in giving them my address. Also check out their privacy policy before buying anything online.
- If you post a message to a mailing list or discussion group then your address will probably end up online, unless the board takes great care in protecting your address. Most mailing lists have archives online, where your email address will be visible to anyone. Spammers use software to spider the web just like search engines do, looking for email addresses. If a search engine can find your address then so can a spammer.
- If you have your own website, or your company has a website, then check your email address is not posted to the site. Use a contact form, or hide your address inside a picture or javascript to protect it from spammers.
- If you have your own domain name, or multiple IP addresses then spammers can search for your domains registration details to find your contact email address. Try using a registrar that hides personal information when you register a domain.
- Many viruses are written to find email addresses. If you, or someone who knows you, gets a virus, they may end up posting all of their address book to spammers.
- Educate your friends to never click on send this link to a friend or similar links on websites, as they are providing your address to sites that may sell your details to spammers.
- Spammers may simply try and guess your email address, by trying common names at all of the domains they find to see if any exist. Many ISPs will forward all email to your domain to a catchall email address, whether or not it was originally for a valid address.
- If you belong to any clubs or trade associations, check they are not publishing your email address on their membership list online.
© 2004-2005 windows.gumph.org. All rights reserved.