Spam: How do they know my email address?

One of the biggest headaches for every user is the amount of spam that we receive everyday in our mailboxes. I remember the days when you only used to get emails from people you know and which contain relevant content – nowadays the ratio is quite the opposite and you might end up getting more unsolicited mail than legitimate ones.

Many are perplexed as to how these spammers manage to get their email address but when you think about it, its not that difficult. Take big email service providers such as yahoo or Hotmail. These have millions of email accounts created – obviously all with the common domain (i.e. hotmail.com for Hotmail accounts etc.). Have you ever tried to register an email address with these companies and found out that the username you want is already taken? Congratulations! You just found a spammable email address.