How do hackers / phishers get your email?

Question

Because.. I keep getting phishing emails from banks that I DON"T even have an account with.. saying to provide my info and whatever. And I keep getting these emails from the U.K. and Africa too saying that I won some lottery and to drop my info. (No.. I never give up any info). But where are they getting my email from??? It can't be from the internet, becuase.. as far as I know If I'm on a message board or something I always use the "hide email address" option. and my email password is the hardest ever. Help?? How do I stop getting these emails?

Answer 1

Change your e-mail or webmail accounts. I've done this every couple years and never get much spam. In the old days before computers, if you entered contests, you'd get a bunch of flyers in your mail. It's no different today, only now we call it spam. Another way your e-mail address gets onto spammers lists happens because the people who have your address on file get infected with worms or viruses.



Aside from changing your e-mail accounts now and then, you might consider getting an anti-spam program such as mail washer. Webmail accounts may also have filters you can setup to stop certain types of e-mail. Yahoo has this, so does g-mail.

Answer 2

There are basically 3 ways the scammers and the spammers get our e-mail addresses.



Method #1--The spam-industry has programs that are continusously crawling the web looking for the "@" symbol which is a sure sign the the word before it and the domain name after it is an e-mail address! Therefore, one should never post there e-mail address on any sort of website or webpage including guestbooks, forums, or user profiles such as Yahoo's.



Method #2--The spam-industry uses programs that try sending e-mail to all known domain names. Example: a program might start trying to send out e-mails to everyone starting with [e-mail] and continue down to [e-mail]. Using a longer e-mail address will make this harder to do.



Method #3-- The spammers and scammers purchase e-mail addresses from disreputable websites that require you to enter your e-mail address. The biggest offenders are sites that claim they are giving away "this and that" for free often require that you enter your e mail address in a web form. Guess where that address ends up? Yup, it is sold to the spammers!



Once your email address is on a spammers list it is almost impossible to get it off. Right now, your e-mail address (along with millions of others) is on a CD being sold from the back rooms of software shops from Bangladesh to Botswanna and from Norway to the Netherlands.



Good luck.

Answer 3

Ever get those chain letters from your freinds that have been forwarded from 10 of there friends that you then forward to 10 of yours? Thats one way they get them.