Ever wonder how spammers get your email address?

[IronFist]

Here is a map. (http://www.cluelessmailers.org/spamdemic/mapfullsizegiflow.html)

Warning, that's a huge image, and it's the low quality one. Someone put a lot of work into it.

Higher res ones, and more info can be found here (http://www.cluelessmailers.org/spamdemic/index.html).

IronFist

[dysContinuum]

That is very interesting. What I found to be even more interesting was that my former place of employment is in amongst all that ruckus (as an end advertiser). I worked for a web based inkjet cartridge company (sad, I know) that averaged about 200-500 orders a day via the web, phones, and walk-ins. The office was small and I was basically the entire IT department.

Although never actually sending out emails except to those who ordered from us we spent $100,000-$150,000 per month in advertising which was 99% email based ads. All of our advertising was supposedly "double opt-in" which is a fancy advertising term that basically means you signed up for something and then confirmed your desire with a second submission (usually a response email). This is supposed to cut back on unwanted or SPAM mailings. Of course the problem begins as soon as we send an ad to the company and they subcontract that ad to a multitude of different other companies to meet huge drop deadlines (up to 500,000 per day). You may see 300-500 order boost in sales when an ad drop is in progress, but as the saying I just made up goes "If you feed enough people sh*t, sooner or later someone is gonna think it's caviar".

We even had a few lawsuits (which were avoided on the basis that it was the advertiser's who were at fault). And so begins the blame game, which as you can see from the map in the link to which I'm replying, that can go on forever.

What can be learned from all this rabble? Your email address is worth its wait in gold to those companies whose sole mission is to make sure you have to spend 10 minutes cleaning out unwanted junk out of your inbox every time you check your mail.

So think twice before you fill your email address in that field next time unless its absolutely necessary, or you will likely regret it later down the road.

Personally, I maintain a few email addresses (one that I have kept spam free for over a year), and several to signup for this or that and buy stuff online.