How do They get my email address to send spam ?

hI I am a mac user and at a loss as to how people get my email address to send me spam ? I have my own domain - I never give out my email address to anyone except close freinds - but non the less get lots of it? I Believe if you visit sites, then some sites can get your email address but how ?

How do They get my email address to send spam ?
Once your email address is on a spammers list it is almost impossible to get off. Right now, your e-mail address (along with millions of others) is on a CD being sold from the back rooms of software shops from Bangladesh to Botswanna and from Norway to the Netherlands.





However there are several things that you can do to prevent even more spam.





1. Start by removing your e-mail address from your Yahoo profile,if it is on it. The spam-industry has programs that are continusously crawling the web looking for the "@" symbol which is a sure sign the the word before it and the domain name after it is an e-mail address!





2. Use a longer address. The spam industry uses programs that try sending e-mail to all known domain names. Example: a program might start trying to send out e-mails to everyone starting with aaaaa@INVALID.com and continue down to zzzzz@INVALID.com. Using a longer e-mail address will make this harder to do.





3. Never click the "Unsubscribe Link" in any e-mail. This will only confirm to the spammers that your e-mail address is indeed real and that you are reading their garbage. In fact, do not even open any e-mail from anybody you don't know or trust. Many spams are not only annoying but contain viruses of other malware. Just delete 'em without opening 'em!.


You can however click that "Unsubscribe Me" button from businesses that are well known and that you trust. Walmart... yes. Someone selling Viagra...no.





4. Open up a second e-mail account. Whenever, a website requires you to register using your e mail address, use this secondary address. There are many unscrupulous websites that will sell you address to others or bombard you with spam themselves.





5. Download a free copy of SiteAdvisor. SiteAdvisor will alert you when you search (Google, Yahoo, MSN, search only) of websites that are known to send out spam. This can help you avoid registering with any sites that are known to spam people.


http://www.siteadvisor.com/





Treat your e-mail address just like you would your telephone number or home address....only give it out to those that you absolutely trust!
Reply:I think there are some programs out that just email to very common


addresses,like aa@email.com


It works in the same type of way as the hackers who use a dictionary attack to crack your password.


Also it just takes one bad company to get it and then they all have.


Never had a problem with just visiting a site.