Client Corner: How do you recieve spam?
If you have an e-mail address there is no doubt you have recieved some sort of spam, but do you actually know how spammers find your e-mail in the first place?
Method 1: E-mail harvesting
When you post your e-mail online, whether it be on a forum or website, it is susceptible to “spambots”. A spambot is a piece of computer code to scan websites for groups of letters that look like e-mail addresses. For example, the spambot will scan a page for the “@” symbol and then log any characters in close proximity to the “@” symbol.
Solution: Avoid posting your e-mail online whenever possible. If you must post your e-mail on a website then try to make it look less obvious. For example: my_name88 /at/ everpixel * com.
Method 2: Domain name guessing
Spammers use a listing of registered domain names and guess possible e-mail addresses associated with a particular domain. The guesses could include generic e-mail names such as: info@thedomainname.com, sales@thedomainname.com , or enquiries@thedomainname.com.
Solution: When creating domain name based e-mail addresses be creative and use a name that spammers are unlikely to guess like commonquestions@thedomainname.com.
Method 3: Dictionary attacks
Another effective way for spammers to collect e-mail addresses is using a dictionary attack. The spammer uses words in the dictionary to generate likely e-mail addresses. For example the spammer may generate words like blue, tree, big, hedgehog, or red, and then spam addresses based on those words (Bigred@email.com, bluehedgehog@mail.com, etc).
Solution: Try and create unique e-mails that are unlikely to be guessed by spammers.
Method 4: Contact form spam
If you have a website and it contains a contact form, then your website is a target for spammers. Basic contact forms can easily be spammed by spambots automatically filling in and submitting the contact form.
Solution: Create more advanced contact forms that uses a captcha (a jumble of numbers or letters that only a human can read) or try asking the user a logical question to verify that he or she is human (for example: Is fire hot or cold?).
Conclusion
Unfortunately, spam will always be a part of the internet and there is no permanent solution. Here are five tips to minimize spam:
- Never reply to a spam e-mail or the spammer will know the e-mail is active.
- Avoid signing up to a mailing list. There is always the chance that the company can sell your address in the future.
- Use a secondary e-mail address for online purposes.
- Try a spam filter.
- If you must post your e-mail online turn it into an image.