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Cookies and Temporary Internet Files
Spammers use a software program called spiders to access and harvest your email address. These spiders basically just wander around the internet and into active browsers searching for your email information. To be more specific, they are looking for the @ symbol so that they can attach themselves to email addresses.
These spiders are very intelligent, but not intelligent enough to know the difference between a legitimate email address and a simulated address. They grab everything and harvest the information to their own database. They can also sometimes grab information from your browser that is not an active or viable email address. These come in the form of cookies and temporary internet files.
If you don’t know what cookies and temporary internet files are, they are they are the record that your computer takes of your online surfing. It is how your computer is able to bring up recently typed in information and quick launching any sites that you want to revisit.
The reason the spiders harvest your cookies and temporary internet files is because the cookies are saved in a manner that resembles an email address. Cookies look like this: MBrown@anywhere.com they usually take on the registered name that the computer is registered to and doesn’t leave a website’s name.
You could gather up to 50 cookies a day depending on how many websites that you visit during the day. Since the spiders don’t know the difference between real email addresses and cookies, you would do better to clean out your cookies and temporary internet files at least twice a week; more if you surf a lot. Here is how to do it from windows.
You can begin by double clicking programs, then accessories, then system tools, and then click disk clean up. Click okay when that box comes in and you can delete your old files and cookies. You can also remove your cookies and temporary internet files by:
Right clicking start, click settings, then control panel. Go into your internet options icon. In there you can follow the instructions for you to clean up your computer by deleting both cookies and temporary internet files.
It is a relatively easy thing to do once you get used to it. In doing this, you are getting rid of the extra files on your computer that these spiders are looking for. It is just an extra precaution that is good to take.
Contest Entries
An alluring way for companies to get your email information is to post contests for things that you would have an interest in winning. Of course in order to enter, you must provide your email information so that they can notify you if you win.
What they don’t tell you is that you are also leaving yourself open to spam from them. Most people know that this is the plan, and many think that this is worth it, but if you don’t, you should think twice before signing on the line.
This also applies to gift offers and subscriptions. It can be a real bother to go through all of the effort it takes to sign yourself up for a contest that has been set up specifically to harvest your email address.
Before signing on for any contest, you should always check the company that is offering it. Some of these contests are legitimate, and some of them are set up specifically to get your email address. It’s a really tricky business. The prize may not always be worth the amount of spam you receive.
Remembered Email Information
A common practice among the more sophisticated spam artists, is to get a good grip on those internet users that have a habit of saving their sign in information to their email addresses. It is very rare, but some people do have the knowledge to pick up your login information.
If you can avoid it, you should try not to save your information like that. It might save you seconds from putting in all of your information manually, but it also leaves you vulnerable to getting snooped.
You have to understand that some spammers get together with hackers and then you have a real problem. That is when their spam can be dangerous to your computer. When spammers do this, they can sometimes be detrimental to your computer’s health to even open the email because it could be an automatic virus that is in your inbox instead of just an annoying ad.
Public Posting
When signing up for one of the many free email addresses that are out there, many people decides to add themselves to the public profile list that the email provider offers. Generally, you leave your basic information and screen name. However, what you rarely notice is that you also leave your contact information as well.
Someone that has little else to do with their time can easily search through public profiles and get your email address at will. The common user will take this information in order to have a chat with someone that shares their interest, but a person that wishes to send you spam can also contact you whenever they want.
In general, you will want to avoid filling out any forms that require you to give out personal information like that. You should always read the company’s privacy policy as well. I know they can be a bit long winded, but true spammers want it that way because they depend on your not reading it. This is how they sneak in the fact that they plan on sharing your information with other companies, if in fact they do.
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