| The answer to that question is
simple. First, sending spam email is cheap! A spammer can send
out a direct marketing email to hundreds even thousands of
recipients for under one cent. Second, believe it or not people
buy things and reply to junk email. NEVER EVER BUY ANY GOODS OR
SERVICES ADVERTISED BY SPAM! It just encourages more spam, If there
is something advertised by spam you are actually interested, find it
somewhere else online, it is time users Banned Spam. So when you put
the two reasons together you get the simple and basic answer that
spamming is profitable. People are making a lot of money by swamping
your inbox with all kinds of junk, scams, and offensive material.
So the real question is How Do Spammers Get My Email Address?
The question we hear more than any other is: How did my email
address become public knowledge? The companies and persons
responsible for flooding your inbox with junk email, advertisements,
and offensive adult content, are very smart and determined
technically savvy internet users.
This document is meant to not only inform you on why the problem
is so pervasive, and why without some defense it will only get
worse. And second, to dispel a few myths about spam and how not to
get spammed.
MYTHS:
- If I don’t give out my email address, spammers won’t get
it. This is the I use my hotmail address for signing up for
websites, and I only give out my real address to people I know.
This is a fairly effective strategy, and in the short term it
may actually work for you, however within a matter of time you
address will be located, exploited, and shared.
- Signing up for adult sites is why you get “those kind of
emails sent to you”. The annoying question – “What kind of
websites do you visit?” Contrary to uninformed belief, you do
not have to visit or sign up for adult sites to get pounded with
junk email advertising “XXX HOT fill in the blank”.
- I complain to the spammers ISP, that way their account is
deactivated. People have been complaining to ISPs since spam
started, and spam has not slowed down. Email headers are forged,
or originate from thousands of different servers, sometimes
switching servers multiple times for the same message batch.
REALITY:
You may be aware of one or more of the following “tactics” of
getting your email address and abusing that information to bombard
you with trash. Below is a list of the more popular methods of
getting your address:
- They buy your name from a list: These junk mail &
targeted email lists have been around almost as long as the
internet itself. For as cheap as $100.00 anyone can buy a list
of over 11 million addresses. These lists we’re created by
numerous unscrupulous website owners, and online stores that
would “share” their customer’s information for some money. As
you can imagine it is impossible for spammers to identify your
likes, or interests, when sending mails to such a large group.
So a “shotgun” mailing is sent out, product offers, get rich
quick schemes, adult porn sites, Korean & Chinese ??? mailings,
are all sent out to all 11 million names.
- Opt-in Lists: These two little words (or one
hyphenated one however you look at it) are quickly becoming
infuriating. These lists are developed by partnering with
legitimate websites which make you check “Don’t send me offers”,
well sooner or later you’ll forget to check one of the boxes,
and you’re added to an opt-in list. Although many opt-in lists
are legitimate and will honor your removal requests, for every
one there are three that are not truly “opt-in” lists. You ask
to be removed from an email from “Marketing Partners Ltd”, and
tomorrow you get two messages saying you opted-in at one of the
partner sites of “Super Opt In Ltd”.
- Email Extractors: These software tools are very
skilled at scouring the internet for email addresses. Websites,
Forums, Alumni sites, news posts, etc. These robots can locate
thousands of email addresses an hour. And spammers run them day
and night.
- MX Server Extractors: These programs exploit internet
mail server protocols. When an email is sent to you it is handed
over to your Mail Provider’s server, which starts
“communication” with the sender. The sender’s server asks to
deliver a message to a user on your server, but before the
message is actually accepted by your server it wants to know who
it the mail is addressed to. So your address is sent over, and
your server replies whether the name is OK, or the address does
not exist on the server (what happens when a message is
“bounced” back to you). Basically the MX server extractors mimic
the communication without actually trying to send the message.
Think of it as someone ringing your doorbell and asking if “Joe”
is home, no one named Joe may live at your house, however if the
person at your door tries enough names sooner or later the may
stumble upon yours, and you will say “Yes”. (You are smart
enough to stop answering after the first or second name guess
however most email servers are not). Programs exist that can
mine over 5000 email addresses per minute, and believe it or not
they sell for less than $100.00
- Viruses, Spyware, and Malicious Code: Not to long ago
viruses & spyware started to appear that transparently load
themselves or are sent via email to your mail client. As soon as
you open books, contact lists, and distribution lists, and
“report” their findings back them, the read you address to home
base.
So when someone claims they don’t get any spam at all, either
they have not had their email address very long.
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