How Do Spammers Get My Address?
Spammer's Techniques
Spammers will literally use any technique they possibly can to get email addresses. This can range from harvesting or mining them from websites, to buying mass emailing lists to simple making them up. Some spammers will actually go to the trouble of visiting websites and either manually filling in forms or using software to do so for them. The reason they do this is that spamming, even though considered highly irritating by most of us, still proves to be an effective way of making sales. Until this ceases to be the case it is likely that spammers will continue to go about their business and find new ways to garner themselves with email addresses.
Posting Your Email Address On A Web Page
If you have ever posted your email address onto a website or web page exactly as you would type it then this is highly likely to be the cause of spam in one form or another. Scraping software will work through websites, following links from one site to another, and picking up any email addresses they find. They usually do this by taking any string of characters that contains the “@” symbol. To combat this regular online posters began to type the word AT in capital letters instead but spammers have altered their software to look for this too.
Masking Your Email
The safest way to place your email address online is through the use of anchor text and links. Instead of leaving your email address as the visible text you should attempt to cover it over with other text. For example “click here to email”.
Signing Up For Websites And Newsletters
This isn't the only way that spammers can get hold of your email address. When you join websites and are asked to provide an email address you should always ensure that you read the privacy policy first and use your own judgment over whether the site looks genuine. Some websites, even genuine ones, will sell the list of email addresses that they gain through their online forms.
Purchasing Email Lists And Opt In Lists
Email lists can be purchased all over the Internet and while some are genuine and contain details of people that wish to be or are willing to be contacted other lists are certainly not like that. If you yourself are considering purchasing a list to use for marketing then you should always look for opt in lists. This means that the user was given the option of whether to receive the kind of information you provide or not, and they chose to do so.
Prevention And Cure Combine To Beat Spam
Spamming is a horrible nuisance on the Internet. It has become increasingly common and there are many ways in which a spammer can get hold of your email address. You should always try to take some care as to where you leave your details and you should certainly never leave an email address completely in tact when being placed on a web page or other online page. That is, unless you have strong and powerful anti spam software to protect you.