Before we see how they do Spammers, let's start with what is Spam?
Spam is the mass sending of a large number of emails. These messages are delivered without the recipients requesting them and without having caused the correspondence with the sender. That's exactly why we call this kind of correspondence, junk mail or Spam.
How can Spammers get the address your email?
There are four key ways in which spammers procure their victim's email addresses:
- They illegally buy mailing lists.
- They use "harvesting programs" that search the internet like its Bots Google, and copy that text containing the “@” character.
- They use "dictionary" programs (brute force) just like hackers do.
- Give yourself your own email address voluntarily and unconsciously when you sign up or delete online services.
The illegal purchase of mailing lists
Υπάρχουν αρκετοί σε θέσεις wrenches που μπορούν να πουλήσουν πληροφορίες που παίρνουν από τους διακομιστές της δουλειάς τους ας πούμε. Οι λίστε μπορούν να πουληθούν στη μαύρη αγορά ή ακόμα και στο eBay. Εκτός όμως από τους νόμιμους εργαζόμενους κάποιας εταιρείας που μπορούν να εκμεταλλευτούν την θέση τους, υπάρχουν και οι hackers που κλεβουν λίστες πελατών και στη συνέχεια τις πωλούν στους spammers.
Harvesting programs, also known as crawl and scrape programs.
These applications "patrol" the Internet, and "capture" any text that contains the character "@." Of course they can collect thousands of addresses in just one hour.
Programs using dictionaries or brute force programs.
It is the third way to collect addresses to be used for spam. Just like the programs used by hackers, they create through a dictionary random combinations of letters and numbers and match them as addresses. Of course many of the results are inaccurate, but these programs can generate hundreds of thousands of addresses per hour, ensuring that at least some of them are true.
Register or delete newsletters.
But let's not forget to mention that too many users deliver their e-mails to spammers themselves. A very common tactic is to receive a newsletter from somewhere you have never subscribed to. We usually look for "unsubscribe" to make sure we don't receive newsletters from them again. But in this way you confirm that your e-mail has a real recipient face.
What can I do about all of this?
You are trying to hide your email from spammers:
Cover your email address using blackout
Use a disposable e-mail address
Use an email encoding tool if you want to publish it somewhere.
Avoid unsubscribing to newsletters whose source you do not know. Just delete the email.
If spammers still get your email address, they will add it to a list that feeds spamming software ("ratware"). Then you know, botnets will start bombarding your inbox with spam.
