Posted 2:16 AM by Blah blah

Preventing Spam: Never Put Your Correct Email Address on Any Website (Spam)

By Sean:

"Foreign Policy magazine did a simple test of the main sources of spam. They set up 250 test email addresses and divided the addresses into six groups. Each group represented a potential source of spam. The study was conducted over six months. The result: 8,842 spam messages.

- Email was used to register a domain name: 1 message

- Email was used on a Web-based discussion board: 15 messages

- Email was sold commercially without owner's permission: 25 messages

- Email was sold or shared commercially without owner's permission: 85 messages

- Email was posted on a USENET discussion group: 110 messages

- Email was posted on a public website: 8,609 messages

Perhaps the most interesting result is that giving out an email address to a company or person results in relatively little spam. You get into real trouble as soon as your email address makes it to a public website, like this blog!"

This is why you should NEVER put your correct email address on ANY website. For example, I left some comments on Christina's blog, which is in Nanjing, China. Email addresses in her comment forms get posted onto that comment page. Soon after, my email address was indexed in all these Chinese search engines. I began to receive tons of goddamned spam from China and Taiwan.

The best way to prevent spam is to simply not post or give out your email address in the first place. You have four choices:

1. Don't give out an address, period.
2. Give out a phony address: I like "a@b.com"
3. Create an account mainly for junk mail. Enter that in all comment and standard web forms.
4. Modify your address so it doesn't go anywhere but people can read and change it. For example, "johnATyahooDOTcom" or "john_at_yahoo_dot_com" or "johnDELETETHIS@yahoo.com."