How Spammers Get Your Email Address

Spammers don't guess — they harvest. Knowing their methods helps you avoid them.

1. Data breaches

Hacked databases are sold in bulk; your address and other details get packaged into lists.

2. List buying and selling

Some companies monetize sign-ups by selling addresses to "marketing partners."

3. Web scraping

Bots crawl pages for anything that looks like an address — including one you posted in a forum years ago.

4. Dictionary attacks

Spammers blast common usernames at a domain (info@, john@, sales@) hoping for hits.

The defense

Use unique, disposable addresses for low-trust sites so a leak from one never connects to you — and keep your real address off public pages.