Three ways spammers get your address
Paul explains 3 ways spammers get your email address.
Related Posts
What is an email address? (part three)
- steve
- Mar 24, 2009
As promised last week, here are some actual recommendations for handling email addresses.
First some things to check when capturing an email address from a user, or when importing a list. These will exclude some legitimate email addresses, but not any that anyone is likely to actually be using. And they’ll allow in some email addresses that are technically not legal, by erring on the side of simple checks. But they’re an awful lot better than many of the existing email address filters.
Words of wisdom from the hallway
- laura
- Feb 19, 2009
Sitting around talking with folks in the hallway. One ISP rep mentions “we think we have found another front company of theirs…”
My only comment was “If a company needs to create a front company…” We all just looked at each other and didn’t need to come up with the “then…”
Really, if a sender thinks they must establish front companies to get connectivity or get customers or get delivery… then this is an admission of guilt.
Delivery lore
- laura
- Mar 5, 2009
(Image from Bad Astronomy)
Almost every delivery consultant, delivery expert or deliverability blog offers their secrets to understanding spam filters. As a reader, though, how do you know if the author knows what they’re talking about? For instance, on one of the major delivery blogs had an article today saying that emails with a specific subject line will not get past spam filters.
This type of statement is nothing new. The lore around spam filters and what they do and do not do permeates our industry. Most of the has achieved the status of urban legend, and yet is still repeated as gospel. Proof? I sent an email with the subject line quoted in the above blog post to my aol, yahoo, gmail and hotmail accounts. Within 3 minutes of sending the email it was in the inbox of all 4 accounts
I can come up with any number of reasons why the email ended up in my inbox, rather than being caught by spam filters as the delivery expert originally claimed. But none of those reasons really matter. The expert in question is spreading delivery lore that is demonstrably false. Emails with that subject line will get through spam filters. I even added an extra 4 exclamation points in the subject line.
Not all delivery lore is true. In fact, most lore involving “always” “all” “never” or “none” is not going to be true. Just because you read it on the internet, and because it came from someone claiming to know what they’re talking about does not absolve individual senders from critically thinking about the information.