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How did the spammers get my email address?

There are many ways the "spammers" get your email address. First, the technical term for spam is Unsolicited Commercial Email (UCE). The spammer has a total disregard for courtesy and laws. Many people think all commercial email is "spam" but that is NOT correct. If you've ever signed up for an eZine (Electronic Magazine) or a Newsletter then forgot, you may be blaming the wrong person. Once you signup for either of these, or others like them, you will continue to get the email until you Un-Subscribe.

All legitimate email marketers will place an easy method for you to unsubscribe from their list. It will be either a link at the beginning or end of their email, or an email address you can send to that directs them to un-subscribe you. These are not just a courtesy but prescribed by law especially since January 1, 2004, in the United States.

- Now for the Good Part -

If you know someone that continually sends you email with many others in the "To:" or "Cc:" field of the email, Ask them to STOP. They are exposing you to spammer address gathering. Ask them to read this page. Educate them and you will be doing yourself a BIG favor. If you want to refer them directly to this page, click HERE and send an email to them from us. EDUCATE ...

How do spammers get your email address?

They have Bots(Robots), Spiders, and Filters. All of these can be used as legal or illegal means to get email addresses. Have you ever received an email that had 10, 20, or more email addresses in the "To:" box? This is just asking to be filtered off and become part of an email list on some spammers computer. Never, Ever - send an email to multiple parties this way. It is just asking to be scooped up by a spammer.

If you must send email to multiple parties, this is the way to do it:

Bots and Filters

Filters and Bots are programmed to sit on an email server ports and watch for multiple entries in an email "To:" portion of an email header. Then all it does is gather these and send them to the owner of the Bot. Simple, if I needed addresses for a spam list, in a matter of hours I could have 50,000 to 100,000 names and email addresses. This is just one method.

Spiders

Another way is to have your name and email address on a web page. There are Spiders (programs) that are made to go out to various web sites and gather email addresses that are listed on the web site that have not been masked. A webmaster can mask email addresses from Spiders but not nearly enough do it. I use a Spider to check my own web sites for unmasked email addresses so I can find and mask them.

Conclusion

Before you accuse some hard working Network Marketer of "spam" make sure that you have your facts straight. Always ask to be removed from an list, wait 10 days, if you continue to get email from that individual, you can honestly say you are being spammed. Legitimate marketers work hard to keep their lists clean and free of unwanted email addresses. At least treat them with a little respect. If you wrongly accuse someone of spamming, it will actually reflect on your integrity in future reports where you may have a real spammer issue.

There are numerous tools available to assist you in ridding your mailbox of spam, I have listed some of them below for your convenience.

Have a spam-free day!
Dan Talley

Suppliers of Anti-Spam Software

* Highly Recommended