Spam is the closest thing we’ll ever find to an Internet plague. No matter who you are, spam will one day find you and you’ll have no choice but to put up with its pestilence. It’s a pandemic that people have been trying to fight for decades, yet it’s still as strong as ever. But how do spammers find you in the first place?

The primary method of spamming is through email. So, logically, you might think that as long as spammers don’t grab a hold of your email address, you should be clear from its reach, right? But it’s not that simple. Spammers have had many years to innovate and perfect their techniques, and as it turns out, they have a whole bunch of ways in which they could lay hands on your email address.

As always, knowledge is power. If you know the techniques that spammers use, then you’ll be better equipped to at least hinder them. Instead of 500 spammers knowing your email address, maybe only 5 will know it. To me, that’s better than nothing.

Method #1: Mailing Lists