Anyone had a spammy e-mail lately?

[askyourgran]

I received one today from Mr Banguira Cisse with his best regards. They are local miners and Product sellers inviting me to buy gold dust and bars, rough and uncut diamonds, scrap battery stainless steel and aluminium. They are trustable (sic) and reliable. and sell below international market rate. How do they find our e-mail addresses?

[DTCwordfan]

Its the copper wire from the Britrail transformer and the lead from the local Catholic Church that you were selling on e-bay......

[Safiya]

i got one the other day..i keep meaning to answer it and forgetting.......

not sure how they find the email addies but ive read that sites sell them to em lol

[Buenchico]

Many spammers generate email addresses pure at random. So, for example, they'll send mail to [email protected], [email protected], [email protected] and so on.

Then, because anyone called John Smith might have used one or more initials in their email address, they'll send mail to [email protected], [email protected], [email protected], etc.

Sooner or later they'll find a genuine address.

To avoid spam, use 'disposable' email addresses (with Gmail, etc), which you can use just to sign up to one site (such as AB) and nowhere else. Also use addresses which aren't easily guessed at, such as [email protected]

[askyourgran]

Lol DTc I'll have to find somewhere else to sell.

Thanks Chris I've been meaning to find out how to generate a disposable e-mail address but not sure how to do it. Saffy you'll have to do the same.

[Buenchico]

AYG:
There are dozens (or, probably, hundreds) of free email services available on the web. However most of them require you to go to their website to read your mail (or to send it). A few, such as Gmail and Gawab, allow you to use an email client (such as Outlook, Outlook Express, Windows Live Mail or Thunderbird) as well.

To use the same service that I do, follow the instructions in paragraph 3, et seq, of my first post here:
http://www.theanswerb...9.html#answer-4624662

[starone]

Well, mine is just a load of unrelated numbers and letters but they still get through somehow.

[askyourgran]

Thanks for that Chris, I'll have a go at that.

[daisya]

I think another way they get addresses is when people "send to all" in their address books especially when they ar forwarding spoofs and mails on. This in turn generates hundreds of emails as those who receive it do the same to their correspondents and so eventually these spammers are going to get hold of addresses. I have one email address that (sshhh) so far has never rec'd any spam and that's because those I write to (and I'm choosy lol) have the notification (warning?) NOT to include my address in any mails or to pass on to anyone. I only use this address for letter writing and nothing else, don't send spoofs etc from there at all. Best to have several different email addresses, one for personal family and friends, one for business/buying online, one for forum registration and one miscellaneous one for sending spoofs and photos et al. I find that way I know what to expect and manage things quite well that way.

[chrissa1]

My late husband's address, (since February this year) started sending these "one line" emails. I found it quite distressing when it first started but since then I have changed his password for his account and they have all stopped.
I guess this only works if an addrss is sending them though, not sure.