There are many ways that spammers get your address some of the most common are:
-Forms & Surveys
If you have EVER given out your email address ANYWHERE it is possible they have sold your address! Websites will often have a incentive like a competition, discount or newsletter asking you for an email and other personal information. This is then added to their database and sometimes sold to marketing companies who will resell the information.
-Harvesters
If you own a website, or have your email address published anywhere on the internet then it can be found by ‘Spiders’ or programs that prowl the internet searching for email addresses and other info, usually automatically.
-Friends
Sometimes friends will visit a website that asks you to ‘refer a friend’, usually in return for a free membership.
-Guessing
It is possible for people to guess your email address. Many companies will have ‘support@mybusiness.com’ as an address. Also free email services like Hotmail are very popular making it easy to produce a list of possible email addresses.
-Group/ forwarding emails
When you forward an email it will often contain the previous senders details. If this ends up with a spammer then they get a free list of prospects, often with nicknames.
MAKE SURE YOU DELETE THE PREVIOUS SENDERS EMAIL ADDRESS BEFORE YOU FORWARD AN EMAIL
PS: Bill Gates is not going to give you $5 for every person you send an email to, and you will not die miserable if you don’t pass chain letters on!
