Ever wonder how you wind up on email distribution lists? Why is it that you get email solicitations, when you never even wanted a said product or are even of the correct gender to be receiving such a product? Well, thanks to modern technology, there are computer programs available that make the job of spammers, easier. These programs have different names. [1]A “web crawler”, spider or bot may be used to pinpoint email addresses off of websites, among other functions. Also a “spambot” actually sends out the junk email, by using made-up email addresses or going so far as to hack into legitimate ones[2] and sending emails to a person’s contact list.
This is how a lot of scam emails take place. For instance, one of your friends has mysteriously wound up in a foreign country and now needs money to pay a hotel bill, before the US Embassy will relinquish his/her passport to come back to the United States. Provide credit card number via email asap!
The best way to block such nuisance emails is to use a good spam filter. Also you may choose to use a “disposable” email or encrypt it, when on the internet. More information can be found on these subjects by visiting http://email.about.com/od/spamandgettingridofit/a/spam_finds_you.htm.
Spam email, unfortunately, is not going away anytime soon. Your best protection against it, truly, is to be aware of the problem, how to protect yourself against it, and to ward off further problems.
[1] http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Web_crawler
[2] http://www.pcmag.com/encyclopedia_term/0,2542,t=spambot&i=57361,00.asp
