Re: [tlug] Email address munging in the TLUG archives (C&C)

[Jim <jep200404@example.com>]

Curt Sampson wrote:

> Even there, I should note that I do have a "closely guarded" e-mail
> address (for my keitai) that does not show up in a search on Google,
> Yahoo or MSN. It was ok for the first couple of years, but now it
> regularly gets a couple of spam messages per day (beyond what my
> SMTP-level filtering blocks.)
> 
> I don't know how spammers got it, but get it they did.

I had a similar strategy, with a closely held private address 
and widely disseminated public address. The private address 
got so much spam that I abandoned it. The public address which 
is easily harvested gets little spam. It makes little sense. 

I also wonder how the spammers got the private address. 

I wonder if the nature of who I conversed with had something 
to do with it. For example, I gave my private address to 
relatives who are generally Windows users and likely don't 
know much about viruses and spybots. They or similar folks 
might have inadvertantly given my address to spammers by 
using infected Windows machines.