Email address mining.

   / Email address mining. #1  

TerryinMD

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Sharpsburg, Md
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Just thought about this today.

Just like many other people, I have been getting tons of unsolicited emails wanting to sell me many products and services that I do not really want to purchase. You know of which I speak so I do not have to go into any specific details.

What I am asking is that is it possible that these SPAMMERS are mining all of those email addresses from Web sites like TBN or any other Web-based forums?

Does anyone have any idea where these turkeys are getting our email addresses?

Terry
 
   / Email address mining. #2  
I don't know how they do it, but if I right-click on the junk email and choose properties, the "to:" line doesn't even have my account half of the time.

I'm sure one of the alpha-geeks here will be able to explain further (I can't, seeing I'm a lower-level geek). /forums/images/graemlins/grin.gif
 
   / Email address mining. #3  
Muhammad has said more than once that TBN does not sell or otherwise make TBNer's email addresses available to anyone.

Where do they get your email address?

1. Ever sign up to be on a mailing list for any other web site?
2. Ever post your email address in a discussion group?
3. Ever register a product on the Internet and have them ask for your email address?
4. Ever forget to uncheck the option "We sometimes make our customer's information available to vendors of similar products you might also be interested in."?
5. Ever use your personal email address to register a product or service at work?
6. Someone you want to have your email address gets infected with a virus that reads their Outlook/Netscape address book and emails others?
7. Someone who has your email address sends out an email to a large number of people, including you, and instead of using bcc: they use the To: field.

There a LOTS of ways spammers can get your email address.
 
   / Email address mining. #4  
Spammers get their addresses from a number of different sources. Yes, sometimes they get them from bots that surf the internet looking for any and all e-mail addresses... and some are more intelligent and try to find website owners, for example.

From a technical standpoint, the way TBN member e-mail addresses are displayed makes it less likely that they will be "harvested" ... in fact, we haven't heard of it happening on a wide scale.

Also, spammers can buy lists of e-mail addresses. These lists contain hundreds of thousands (or millions) of addresses, sometimes "targeted" to certain markets.

Such lists are compiled from various sources, but as a rule of thumb any time you submit your e-mail address in a form, there is a chance that the website you're submitting information to, could sell or share your e-mail address with other companies. One thing leads to another and you're on dozens of bulk e-mail lists.

The larger websites will usually have privacy policies (long, long documents that almost nobody reads), but there's nothing stopping them from changing their policy at a later date, which would in effect expose you to having your e-mail address shared.

The thing is, you can even subscribe to a list you WANT to be on, and wind up getting spammed from partners of that company. And again, one thing leads to another.

Of course, TBN won't sell or share your address. /forums/images/graemlins/smirk.gif
 
   / Email address mining.
  • Thread Starter
#5  
I basically knew that TBN did not sell email addresses that is why I used "mining" on the subject line. My bad, should have mentioned that in the message.

However, both Mike and Muhammad answered provided some answers. The use of "bots" provides an intrigueing answer. I wish I had the time and energy to waste on writing code to mine for information. Plus the intestinal fortitude to try to run that code on someones system to steal data. /forums/images/graemlins/shocked.gif

Terry
 
   / Email address mining. #6  
What really sets me off more than spam are junk advertisements flowing through my fax machine. This stuff consumes my toner and paper and I don't need it nor do I want it. But the stuff keeps coming on a daily basis.

I don't even read it I just feed it to MACK our monster shredder machine. burp.... /forums/images/graemlins/crazy.gif It then all ends up recycled as packaging material
 
   / Email address mining. #7  
You should get a cheap, old PC and toss a fax/modem card in it. It can be a slow old CPU since faxes don't work at high speed anyway. This can retrieve your faxes, and you can print only the ones you need.
 
 
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