Spyware, viruses, & security forum: How do spammers get another person's email address, and ...

Good answers Rick. Some additional information. Remember nothing is free. Free email addresses, coupons,greetings cards, etc. all collect data and build mailing lists which they sell. Instant messengers broadcast your email address to the whole Internet and even tell when you are online. The best way to help your ISP fight garbage email is to think. Watch where you go, what you click on and what information you give out no matter how legitimate the site may seem. The best way for you personally to fight what is coming in is to learn and use message rules and filters in your browser. You can build rules/filters that can automatically delete garbage when it comes in without you having to even look at it.

Can a spam site log and WHOIS your IP address to get Email addresses.

My IP address now is on a proxy, but my old service provider wasnt and it seems like I had a lot of spam then.

Tom's link mentions using the BCC method.

IF the world would use BCC when sending emails rather than CC:, it would certainly help the spam situation.

If I'm sending an email to several, I send it to myself and put EVERYONE else in the BCC. So easy!

Julea

I have several websites; some have my email written out xxxx@yahoo.com, for instance

bots crawl sites "looking" for email addresses (normally key of the @ within a text string). One effective way to get around that is to simply make use of "special characters" in your html coding.

Replace the @ symbol with @
Replace the dots with .

The address will still render correctly.

Alternatively and even better is to encode the whole email address.
you@yourdomain.org becomes:
<a href="mailto:79%6F%75%40%79%6F%75%72%64%6F%6D%61%69%6E%2E%6F%72%67">click to email</a>
(can substitute a graphic showing the actual email address in place of the click to email if desired)

I am sure you can see how a bot could be devised to thwart even those measures but most will not take the time as there are too many addresses available on sites in the html pages to bother decoding.

You can either encode manually (the above email simply substitutes the hex numeric for the ascii code for the symbol) or even easier just go to this link and download the free automated encoder. It is designed to encode URLs but works for emails by replacing the http:// with mailto:
http://www.winfosec.com/urlencoder.php
or
http://%77%77%77%2E%77%69%6E%66%6F%73%65%63%2E%63%6F%6D/%75%72%6C%65%6E%63%6F%64%65%72%2E%70%68%70

Many spamers try the same trick to attempt to hide their true email addresses. Replacing the @ symbol can cause even more trouble for your email. Most ISPs now days use some form of spam blocking. Replacing the @ symbol can create a situation where your email gets blocked. Spam blocking software can be set to check for a valid address. If that address does not match the address from the sending server a block can be put on it without you knowing it. You'll be sending emails that will never get to the desired location.

I have a couple email accounts for business. For spam though I use two accounts. As described in another posting, I use one of the accounts for online signups. Also, if they ask for a phone number and I know its not really needed they will usually get the 123-456-7890 because I don't want to be bothered at night either. Why should I submit myself to unsoliciated phone calls too? Isn't spam enough? Mainly because you will get an error saying you didnt fill out all the spaces on the form.

I started using Spamcop a few months ago along with MailWasher Pro. This way the spam doesn't get into my inbox and spamcop takes care of it. A few extra steps for me, but peace of mind that someone is fighting against "spam" is a good feeling. Also if I don't get to the spamcop in alloted time,at least the email won't get to my inbox.

I do have Norton Spam Protection in my Outlook as well, for back up purposes.
Do I sound like I'm being over protective of my laptop? You bet. I don't enjoy recovering after a virus-worm invades my space.

Good luck in your protecting of your computer.

Spam blockers, etc. are great and I use them, too. However, before I connect my mail software (Outlook), I first go to mail2web.com and delete anything that looks questionable. I can see the text version before any HTML is displayed, so there's no danger of active links. I can also see the mail as HTML or as the original source. Once I've 'cleaned' my accounts, I can open Outlook without fear. You can access mail2web.com free from any browser, anywhere, and there's no spyware, ads, or other problems.

I went with option #2 (uses a javascript) described at:

http://www.designchef.com/tips/email-javascript.html

I also provide a .png image of my e-mail address for web mail users and those without javascript enabled.

Yep, I use Blue Security along with MailWasher pro and haven't been able to bounce spam to BlueFrog for a couple days now. They must have been doing their job for a spammer to attack THEM. I hope they come back soon.

Yes, they're back on line but asking no reports be entered yet since they're still having problems.

see titile! delete every thing sensative