Simple Question....

I was wondering, how exactly (or precisely, whichever you can provide) do spambots or spiderbots obtain your email address? Through banners? Through forms that you have submitted at an alternate web page? And what are 'Cookies'?

Thanks!
Wesmorrisbabe

 

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I don't think it's possible for spambots to get your email from just clicking on something like a banner. You have to type your email address into something, such as when you buy something from a site and sign up for a newsletter. Some 'high quality' sites don't sell your address to spambots but many do, especially the smaller merchant sites.

What pisses me off, is the spambots are getting smart by typing words with ! and numbers so my junk filter doesn't throw them away. 'h3llo' something like that.

Cookies are small files that are stored on your computer and let the web site that created them read the cookie and identify you, seperating you from the other computers that log on to the site. They don't ID you with "Shirely Jones; 555 South Branch Drive; CA, USA"...it's usually with a number that matches up with a database. Cookies help with saving settings you want when you log on to a site. Like with SciForums, if you want the site to look blue-ish, you select the setting and SciForums puts a cookie on your computer, so everytime you log on it's blue and not the default setting.

 

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Spam bots are programs that recognise email addresses and store them, what they basically do is go through every web page searching for email address in the format of: 'yourname@yourdomain.com'. In the past it would benefit you to 'mung' your email address by putting it like this: 'yournameDELETETHIS@yourdomain.com', but the spambot creators have now developed them to recognise this and they now can desipher 'munging' so its useless trying this technique. They go through pages by going through all the links until they have finished, they then will start the process all again. The archives are used by mailer programs which will then use your email for spamming, constantly changing the format of the mail so it avoids any junkmail filter that you have set up from passed mail. Under no circumstances click 'remove from list' because this then tells the spammer that they have found an active email address and then you will never get rid of the spam. Something like 3 out of 7 emails are spam and its constantly increasing which will eventually render email useless but its the people that buy from the spam advertisements that encourage it. Think about it, if they are going through all this, they must be getting customers as a result. The only way i know of making your email address invunrable to spambots is putting it in this format: yourname%40yourdomain.com however this doesnt work with forms only html for webpages. Oh and set up a filter on your mail blocking every email address except addresses that you know.
Damn the spambot programmers!

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Robots regularly pay treks across my sites, and admittedly I too could have been very spammed for it.

But thats not the only way you get spam, another is if you own a Domain and you put your name down, you can get people offering you things from that.

IRC and other types of messenger service are another way.

As for Ad Banners, the sort of information they can get is your Default e-mail address from outlook. (Well some will argue thats been blocked now, but I'll differ with that)

Ad banners can also read you history (and send it to a bot to spider for more addresses, since where you'e been there is bound to be something to spider)

Another way is by trying to get yourself off a spam list.
Oh yes the unsubscribe that subscribes you to the "Lame guy that wanted to be removed" pile, of course then they know your a real person and not just a glitch in the mainframe.

 

I get about 1 spam email in 2 months from my special spam email
don't get anything from the other 2 accounts
not so bad

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