Ever find it funny that a spam message rarely gives any information about who the spammer is, from what company they come, or the physical location of the company, but that they almost always offer some legitimate-looking option to unsubscribe? Most of the time, it’s a ruse. The thing is, hitting the unsubscribe button only tells the spammers that they’ve reached a working address. Once they know that, you’re doomed. Now, there are legitimate unsubscribe options - Amazon, Microsoft, or Northwest Airlines, for instance. But with unsolicited e-mails, unsubscribe options will never get you off the mailing list.
Getting new addresses to spam is one of a spammer’s highest priorities, and they go to great lengths to get them. In the late 1990’s, spammers took a hint from Web search engines and created Web crawlers and Web spiders that simply look at page after page and look for the @ symbol. When they’d find one, they would harvest the address. If you’ve got your email address on a Web page, you’re sure to get spammed.
The lesson is clear: Do not post your e-mail address in “naked” form on your Web page. The spiders are still looking around, all day, every day, although they're much more sophisticated than they used to be. Furthermore, make it clear to friends, family, and colleagues that they cannot post your e-mail address on their Web pages. This is a big problem for people who are publicly known for some reason, like a senator or congressman, or whose address is often used for a contact, such as one who serves on a committee.
If it’s absolutely essential that your e-mail address be posted on a web site, have it rendered in graphic form or in such a way to avoid a spider (you can email me at joli_ballew at hotmail dot com, for instance).
You’ve probably seen this already--where someone’s address is not character-based but designed into a graphic in a file. Spiders can’t read the contents of graphics, so this is one way around the spiders.
