Want some email with that spam?
Aug 10th, 2007 by Vinny
Everyone gets more spam than any email system knows what to do with. How do we get on these email lists and why bother spamming? Those questions have been asked for ages.
Typically one gets on an email list from a spider that’s only purpose is to cowl the internet for email addresses. If you are a web domain owner and used your real email address in the registration, all that information is publicly accessible. If you have ever signed up or purchased a product from an online retailer, your email is on a list somewhere. When Gmail was first started, there were automated bots just sending emails starting at AAAAA to ZZZZZ@gmail.com. So what can you do?
There are a few ways to work on this.
- Use a fake email address! Sites such as http://www.mailinator.com let you use any email you can think of, as long as it is @mailinator.com. So if you just want to access a website for an initial registration, make up an email address like onetimejunky@mailinator.com. Go to the website, and type in your username, and after a few minutes your emails should pop up. There are many other such websites out there, some giving 10 minute emails, or you can register for another yahoo account and just delete it.
- Google’s Gmail and possibly most email providers allow you to add a plus sign to your email username. An example would be test+ihatespam@gmail.com. This will allow you to filter out emails easier, for instance you can put the website your registering on after the plus sign and very easily see where your spam is coming from.
- Only give out your email address when there is a reason for it. Most merchants have no reason to ask for your email, only to solicit business or sell the addresses. They should have a privacy policy that states either way, but who really can be sure they abide it?
One final suggestion is to always enable the spam filtering on your free email accounts. They are pretty good at catching mass emails, which seems to be all the rage these days.
So why do spammers stay in business? One simple reason, people click on the links! Stop clicking on the spam, and we don’t have a problem (except for virus spam, which there is ALOT of).
As always, don’t click on an attachment unless you are expecting it. Viruses come from friends and family too.
