Anyone who’s ever owned an e-mail address understands the frustration. Your e-mail inbox floods with free offers, new products, unwanted newsletters, and more that you never subscribed to receive. But it seems no matter what you do, e-mails still fill your inbox (or junk folder). So, if you’ve never registered for this information, how is it accessible to different companies? Chances are, your e-mail address has been bought and sold as part of an e-mail list.
Once purchased or scraped (which means finding the e-mail address readily online), spammers take your information and attempt to push their products, services, or agenda into your life.
Aside from a public data check, which monitors where your information is showing up online, there are ways of limiting the likelihood of tracking your e-mail address. Prevention is the easiest way to prevent your inbox from continuously filling with spam e-mails. After all, once purchased online, your e-mail, the cycle of spam will continue until the e-mail is no longer active. If you’re ready to limit the likelihood of this happening in the future, here are five common ways spammers get your e-mail address:
Running Automated Dictionary Programs
Although these programs sound relatively tame, a dictionary program is anything but that. Instead, it uses an automated program to run a series of alphanumeric combinations of e-mail addresses in sequence. Similar to the older telephone dialing systems, these programs will create and run various e-mail sequences to try and generate leads. Once created, the system will target all created addresses in hopes of hitting a few verified e-mail addresses. This method would obviously have a high failure rate (after all, it’s all alphanumeric). Still, with the capacity to generate hundreds of thousands of e-mails per hour, e-mails it does successfully contact can be worth it.
Scraping the internet with Harvesting Programs
Harvesting programs can use any information that is available online. These programs will scan through text on web pages, searching for the @ character. These automated tools will then record the alphanumeric digits before and after the symbol, creating a bank of e-mail addresses. From there, spammers will use the information sourced online to create extensive e-mail lists. If you’ve posted your e-mail address on your webpage, social media, or public profile, a spammer will find it and exploit it.
Purchased E-mail Lists
If you’ve entered your e-mail address into a website, you may have consented to share your information through marketing lists. These listed have your name, e-mail, and possibly more (depending on what you entered into the site) compiled in a data bank. From there, companies can purchase these lists in hopes of sending you communications. These lists can be bought legally or illegally (meaning you didn’t give consent for future contact from outside companies) and can be purchased on popular websites like eBay or through the dark web.
Through Deceptive E-mail Tactics
When you’ve received an e-mail from someone you don’t know, there’s a good chance you do one of two things. The first is to open the e-mail and determine when you joined this e-mail list. If you don’t recall registering for the subscription, you probably scroll to the bottom and hit unsubscribe. The second is marking the e-mail sender as “spam” and deleting the e-mail without ever opening it. But, if a spammer is trying to contact you, there’s a good chance that opening the e-mail and unsubscribing will only continue the problem.
A spammer is going to look for two things when e-mailing his list; activity, and validity. So, by sending a test e-mail of a newsletter, he wants to see if you open the e-mail (that confirms you’re still an active account) and if you engage with the contents (even if that’s trying to unsubscribe). Although your intention in these actions is to unsubscribe to the bogus e-mail, you’ve given him proof the e-mail is valid. From there, your information gets added to a master list and shared online with thousands of potential buyers. Once purchased, the buyer will add you to his e-mail list and continue to send you countless e-mails for products you never requested.
Contact with Phishing Attempts
Any service you subscribe to with your e-mail or password can be used as a phishing attempt online. This method is quite deceptive to the recipient, with users receiving a masked e-mail from the spammer. They request users enter their username and password into a fake website, which records the account’s e-mail address and password. This method of the collection provides hackers with two things. First, it gives them an e-mail to add to their data list and an account to sell online. If you receive a company e-mail, always close the e-mail program and log into your account directly from the website. The website is a safe and secure method of use and limits the likelihood of capturing your e-mail.
Prevention is Easier Than Eliminating the Problem
One of the easiest methods of eliminating spam from your inbox is replacing the e-mail. Creating a new e-mail address takes minutes and can often be a faster and more efficient method to getting rid of the junk mail flooding your inbox. For non-disposable e-mail addresses, start by marking anything you haven’t subscribed to as spam. Then, ensure you don’t open the e-mail addresses, nor should you interact with them in any manner. Every time an individual marks the newsletter or company as spam, the e-mail provider will flag the account. After a certain percentage of flagged e-mails, the provider may remove the IP address and company from the platform.
