Four Ways Spammers Get Your Address
There are four main ways spammers get your email address. Here’s a look at each method and what you can do to defend your inbox against these unwanted intrusions.
Buying Email Addresses From a List
Spammers purchase email addresses both legally and illegally. When you create an account on a website or service or make an online purchase, read the privacy policy carefully. Your email address could be sold to a marketing list, creating unwanted junk mail. In addition, dishonest employees of ISPs sometimes sell email lists via eBay or on the black market.
Using Harvesting Programs
Any text on a web page that contains the @ character is fair game for email harvesting programs. Spammers and hackers use complex automated tools to scan the web and gather email addresses. Spammers harvest email addresses from mailing lists, websites, chat rooms, domain contact points, and much more. Understand that if you list your email address online, a spammer will find it.
Dictionary Programs
Also commonly known as “brute-force attacks,” dictionary programs generate alphanumeric combinations of email addresses in sequence. While many of the results are incorrect, these dictionary programs can create hundreds of thousands of addresses per hour, guaranteeing that at least some will work as targets for spam.
Dishonest Newsletter Services
Dishonest newsletter services will sell your email address for a commission. A very common tactic is to blast millions of people with a false “you have joined a newsletter” email. When users click on the Unsubscribe link, they actually confirm that a real person exists at their email address.
Protect Your Email Address From Spammers
While there’s no foolproof way to steer clear of spammers, there are a few manual techniques that can help hide your email address.
Disguise Your Email Address
One tactic is to hide your email address using obfuscation techniques. For example, insert strings, characters, or spaces into your email address when you post it online. Posting your email address as an image is another way to disguise it.
Use a Disposable Email Address
Another method is to use a disposable email address when you need an email address to sign up for something online, or if you need to post an email address online. When you use a disposable email address you’re actually using an alias of your real email address. Move on to a new disposable address if one starts getting spam.
Use an Encoding Tool
To take the obfuscation a step further, use an email address encoding tool when you publish your address on your website or blog.
Delete Without Unsubscribing
If you receive an unsubscribe request from a newsletter you never actually subscribed to in the first place, simply delete the email. Don’t follow the unsubscribe link, as that may just validate your email address for spammers.
