[james_8970]

I know that when someone adds a e-mail in the forum we remove it due to the fact that they may get unwanted e-mails from spammers as bots pick up the e-mails. Does the same work for any other site?
We have been getting alot of spam at our school lately, and wondering if this may be a contributing cause.
Thanx
James

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Are your email addys posted on a school directory website?
Johanna

[Johanna]

Are your email addys posted on a school directory website?
Johanna

[james_8970]

not mine, my student counsolers and other teachers. But i made a website for a non profit organization that I created, and has her e-mail on it as well. Could any of these contribute to spam?
James

[sarahw]

Obviously if anybody can see your email address, they can send you spam. Alot of spam comes from a database, like when you sign up to something online, you give your email it's entered in a database and they can then send you spam with little or no human interaction. In a EULA you probably give permission for them to do this.

It really helps identifying the source of the spam and it's content. Is it related to anything in specific? You could go to a site and get your name removed, or uncheck something, etc.

[james_8970]

i have learnt my leasson from going to the source and "removing" my e-mail from them. It was some [bleep] stuff that was flooding my inbox, still don't know where it came from, anyways i went to the site and then it almost blew my computer up it loaded so much spyware/adware. So i don't feel like going that root again.
As for the database thing, i'm well aware of that as well. People have good intentions to send a e-card or whatever they are called now and then you get that sent along with lots of spam.
However, i think i have heard somewhere or else i might be dreaming it, that 'bots' search the internet for e-mail address'. Is this true?
James

[sarahw]

I probably should have been more clear. Going to the source can sometimes be counter-productive. In some cases, replying to the email requesting "stop sending the emails" can result in even more being sent as it shows the spammer that the account is active. What I meant was if you "opt in" for emails, you can unsubscribe to these.

Yeah, there are programs that scan web pages for email addresses. Usually ones with Mail, reply address, email directory or something similar in the 'header' or in the 'mailto' tags.

---------------
An estimated 55 billion e-mail spam were sent each day in June 2006

Edited by sarahw, 24 September 2006 - 05:55 PM.

[Johanna]

One way to cut down on spam is to use a "throwaway address" when you need to supply an email address to a place that you know will produce spam. Never ever click on an "unsubscribe me" type of link in a spam email, because that just tells them that their email was read, and your address is valid. You might wear your finger out on the delete key, so if you're really fed up, but don't want to change your primary email adress, you can use third party software like MailWasher.
http://www.firetrust.com/products/pro/
Another alternative is to use a GMail account. I have to say I am impressed with GMail's spam filtering. It is rare that an unwanted spam email ever ends up in my inbox, and I don't remember ever fishing a legit email from the spam catcher. Plus, GMail provides some really inventive recipes at the top of the spam page.
Johanna